Agents 0058
by Pixieblade
Summary: Our heroes have uncovered a much bigger case than their usual off-world smuggling. This time there are body parts showing up at local hospitals, 'charity' by an angel call Raphael. Too bad the price for his gifts is the mutilated corpse of a kid or two.
1. The Darkness Beckons

**Agents 0058**

Pairing/Rating: 58/M

Saiyuki AU

Warnings: None at the moment, other than bad plot bunnies and stupid titles. Oh, and violence and profanity. What, you were expecting Mr. Rodgers perhaps?

Summary: Our heroes have uncovered a much bigger case than their usual off-world smuggling. This time there are body parts showing up at local hospitals, 'charity' by an angel call Raphael. Too bad the price for his gifts is the mutilated corpse of a kid or two.

_______________________________________________________________________

Ch. 1

"Now why would anyone ever spend good money on something this tacky?" he mumbled under his breath while lightly flicking the rhinestone studded silver skull belt buckle.

"I don't know…some black leather pants and long jacket it might work." A low, sultry voice whispered in his ear.

Jumping back guiltily, he knocked the buckle in question, along with a dozen others, off the rack, their clattering drawing the attention of everyone around him. Resigning himself to his fate he bent down to collect the monstrosities.

"Ni~ce~…never thought I'd be jealous of a pair of jeans, but damn, during my next life remind me to come back as a pair of Levy's."

"I swear to God…"

"Now. Now. You know you can't say anything or this whole thing will have been a waste of time."

"Both of you shut the fuck up! Comms are going silent now!!" The staticy voice cut Vinny off mid-sexual harassment and Michael sighed, he'd have to deal with this one way or another and soon if he wanted to maintain any form of professionalism while working with the man.

It wasn't that he wasn't flattered, he was a good enough guy to work with and he knew enough about the man to know he really did care about the job and helping people, but really, could the man be a bit more subtle perhaps? And why was it only him? Vinny was a notorious womanizer; so why was he getting singled out? If anyone in their squad should be getting this treatment, it should be Gabriel, at least _he_ was pretty.

He sighed again and then made the mark from the corner of his eye as the voice crackled back into life, the low purr in his ear telling him to play it cool, safe, and not to play heroics if things went bad—to roll with the punches and keep his wits about him. It was the same speech he'd made during their first job together when they were on their own.

_That time Vinny had gone in and he'd played back-up, recon, and half a dozen other jobs before the world had turned purple and he'd heard his name shouted over the comm. when the mark made Vinny. It had been his voice then, calm, collected, softly telling him it'd be okay, to turn right there, now up the stairs to your left, that's right, I'm here, I'll watch over you, don't worry. _

_Now go down that hallway, yes, that one. Very good, you're doing just fine, we'll make it through this—I've never lost…I won't lose you, keep going now, another door to your left…wait a moment. Shh…quiet now, calm your breathing, just listen to my voice, trust me, I won't let you go, what did you tell me earlier about your niece being the spunkiest little thing—all that red hair—carrot top that one—must be in the blood, the red just didn't wash out even after all these years. I'd like to meet her, 'Lirin' right? Must be cute, think of her—of your brother and his wife—think Vinny…._

_Vinny?_

_Vinny?!_

_Vincenzo!! Come back to me—don't you fucking leave me too! You understand me! Not you too, you're not allowed, God Damnit!!_

_He'd pounded the keyboard in frustration as the silence dragged on only to have a small heart attack when a loud pop crackled over the comms._

_Hey…Michael? Come on man, relax, I'm okay—comm went down for a minute, I lost you somewhere around the hair, what were you saying?_

_…._

_…Michael?_

_…._

_..Mi.._

_Nothing. It's fine. Where are you now?_

_Um, a few blocks away I think. Meet me at the pizza shop on 83rd?_

_…Yes. I'll be there in twenty._

_Twenty?!_

_Yes, in case you were followed, can't be too careful._

_Then wear a condom. I'm cold and tired and ready for a hot shower back home. Now can we please get out of here already?_

"Michael? You okay, man?"

Vinny's voice brought him back to the present; he'd followed unobtrusively as the twenty-something year old man with oily black hair had made a beeline for the back door, hands clutching a backpack to his chest like it was breakable.

"We've got a live one. Proceeding towards rear entrance, back-up requested in alleyway." He murmured quietly into his jacket as he pulled the baseball cap farther over his ears.

Jackson, their boy-wonder K9 handler, popped up out of nowhere with a cheery 'Roger!' on the comms while Gabriel cussed the kid out for always butting in where he wasn't needed. Personally, he thought the sight of their huge sheppard might make things go a bit smoother, but he wasn't the one calling the shots here…Gabriel was and Lord knew the man never let them off easy.

"Michael, heads up man, Jackson's heading towards Montgomery St. you should be able to herd the guy to him without much difficulty."

Michael tipped his head in acknowledgement. He knew the others couldn't see him now that he was outside the building, but it didn't stop him from doing it. There was a corner up ahead, if the guy was heading towards the docks he'd have to turn at Lispenard and then again at Montgomery. He was only half a block behind the guy; it shouldn't be hard to trail him to the meeting point and Jackson, but as he picked his way over the refuse littering the corner of Walker and Lispenard he stopped short, a curse escaping his lips.

"What's wrong? Talk to me, Mike." He frowned at the nickname; he just never saw himself as a 'Mike' and didn't understand why Vinny insisted on calling him it.

"Perp has a bead on Jackson. His back's turned and it doesn't seem like he has Jeep. Why was he allowed out without the damn dog?" He hissed into the comms.

Gabriel's burst of profanity from the second recon van was as wide and varied as a truckers'. If the situation was less serious he might have even laughed at the fatherly devotion he showed towards the boy.

"Get him out of there, Michael! Extreme action is allowed."

Vinny sucked in a quick breath as Michael dipped his chin, his glasses flashing in the fading light as a small, creepy smile inched across his lips. He'd been hoping for this, though he was surprised at the ease in which the change came over him.

"Mike, man, don't leave little bits like last time, okay? It was a fucking nightmare cleaning the guy up." Vinny's voice sounded fuzzy in his ears as he straightened to his full height and stepped out into the alley, his sneakers silent as he trod the cluttered street. The guy was ten feet from Jackson, thirty from him and two feet from either wall. He never knew what hit him as those two feet disappeared beneath his face. The crunch of bone and splurt of blood as they shattered under his hand made Jackson jump, his hand on the stun gun as he whirled around, panic and fear mingling in his large brown eyes.

Michael ducked as the twin electric prongs shot by his head, a feral glint in his eyes as his lips curled back to expose extended canines. Jackson dropped the gun, its clattering to the ground drowned out as Michael sunk his nails in just a fraction more--the man's skull snapping under the pressure. He could see Jackson's lips moving, could even hear Gabriel yelling at him over the communications relay. Some part of him knew that Jeep was loose and barreling down the winding streets towards them, though he didn't really give a damn at the moment.

No, with the scent of blood in the air, dripping glossily off his claw-like hands as he shook the dead man's head loose from his fingers, little pieces of brain and blood splattering wetly across the old brick wall, he couldn't have cared less about anything or anyone at that moment. It came as a complete shock then, when he found his hair jerked back roughly and warm lips clamping over his own.

He fought for control, claws racking at the person pinning him to the wall, surprised at the strength of the person. A growl, low and deadly, escaped his lips as he bit down hard enough to split the lip of his pursuer only to have the other draw back, sadness and longing mingling in blood red eyes before his world exploded in a brilliant flash of white stars and fire across his abdomen.

"Damn you…Vincen..zo…" he hissed before collapsing into the man's arms, the metallic gleam of the stunner knuckle-white fisted in a strong tanned hand._ Oh, they were so going to have to talk about trust and boundaries after that little stunt, _he thought before the darkness of oblivion claimed him.

***

He awoke to a pounding headache and smoke filled lungs. Coughing delicately, one bandaged hand pressed against his cracked lips as his eyes watered slightly.

"Sorry, forgot you don't smoke."

Glancing to the right he watched as his partner pushed off of the doorframe and stalked over to his side. Michael frowned at the red head, bare torso bandaged and jeans loose of his hips. His hair was long and free around his shoulders, the edges lifting to hang suspended for a moment as he flopped down beside him on the bed.

"Please don't stop on my account." He drawled, a small disapproving grimace on his lips as Vinny blew a steady stream of the grey smoke right in his face.

"Wasn't planning on it. Consider it payback for almost slicing me in half." Vinny's eyes, normally a deep auburn-copper color seemed to glow slightly in the dark room. Staring into their depths brought everything crashing back into focus: the mark…Jackson…the stunner.

"You zapped me." He accused, eyes narrowing.

"Yeah well, you turned the mark's brain into Swiss-cheese. There wasn't even enough left to do a scan on him. Gabriel's been getting chewed out by the Council head's for a solid hour, Jackson's to freaked to even go near the kennels because of your little wolf-man routine, and now I'm stuck on 'down-time' until these heal. Only took three dozen stitches by the way."

"Are you done?" Michael asked quietly, head hung low as he tried to calm his breathing. He hadn't thought he'd let the darkness take him so far.

He heard Vinny get up, heard the footsteps as he walked across the old wooden floor. Their creaking telling him the man was coming close to his side.

"No. I zapped you, yeah, because you were starting to go all dark and spooky, but you're forgetting something important, Mike."

"Please don't call me…ungh!" He'd raised his head planning on chastising the man for the ridiculous name; he wasn't planning on getting kissed.

Vincenzo tipped his head back, strong fingers kneading the muscles of his neck, his tongue running along the seam of Michael's, begging for entrance, rewarding his stunned compliance with a mouthful of smoky heat and playful nipping at his bottom lip. Michael shuddered as Vinny ran a strong hand across his chest, fingertips grazing over ribs and nipples, stroking along his abdomen and hips, pulling him in against his chest roughly. Michael was breathless and a little starry-eyed when he finally pulled away. Vinny ran a calloused finger down his cheek and over his kiss bruised lips as he stood.

"You forgot…I also kissed you. Think about that for a bit before you start getting bitchy about being stunned." Michael watched in stunned silence as the other man waved over his shoulder, "I'm on nurse duty so holler if you need anything." He cast one last copper tinted glance over his shoulder at the brunette before the door clicked shut behind him, plunging the room back into darkness.

It was a long time before Michael could think again. Even longer before he was able to lay back down, the deep ruby sheets clutched pathetically in his knuckle-white grip as he willed himself to relax and try to sleep. Once he remembered that his sheets were green…that it was Vincenzo who always had deep wine-colored sheets on his bed, he knew he wasn't going to be able to relax or sleep. Curling up into a little ball he wrapped the silken expanse of cloth the tighter around his body and willed the taste and texture of the man's mouth away from his conscious thoughts.

How he was going to work with him after this was beyond his comprehension.

TBC


	2. Flittering Conscousness

Ch. 2

He watched as piety turned to blasphemy turned to outright sin. He watched as those soft pink lips curled back-the pearly teeth gripping the edge of the iron cross and held his breath. How many times had he seen some random stranger chewing thoughtfully on the end of a pen? How many times had he done it himself? Yet never before had such a simple, unconscious act as this caught his attention so. He smothered a soft sigh as the end passed further into the moist cavern only to appear again quickly off to the side. He'd never wanted to be religious before that moment.

The bells rang loudly across the courtyard, startling the sinful mouth that toyed so sexually with the item of religious fidelity and fervor. A quick, chaste kiss to the cold metal and it was swinging freely from a chain around a slender milky neck as a long pair of legs propelled its owner away from the statue of the Virgin Mary at the center of the small rose garden. He smothered a groan as flashing emerald eyes turned and glanced back towards him, a small concerned frown pulling peach lips. A slender finger pushed thin silver frames up a delicately arched nose before turning away; the angel-made-flesh disappearing beneath the ancient stone archway leading back into the bowels of the church.

He gulped at the warm beer in his hand without noticing the heat. He'd never seen a more tempting…priest. Smiling as he tossed the bottle away, flames licking his fingers as he lit up, he laughed softly, maybe it was time for a confession or two after all.

"Father, are you alright?"

"Gregory," green eyes glanced over his shoulder once more, "yes, yes, I'm fine. Are you heading home now?"

Bright brown eyes smiled up at him, "Yep! Everything's set out for Mass tomorrow. We'll pour the sacraments before Mass."

He nodded absently, patting the boy's shoulder as he moved past him towards the altar, "Very good, then I'll see you and Nicholas tomorrow at seven. Tell Gabriel I said hello, will you?"

"Sure! Bye Father!" he called out, laughing as he took the stairs three at a time. He shook his head, one day the boy's luck and his balance wouldn't save him…hearing the doors bounce on their hinges, he sighed, but not today it appeared. He chuckled softly as the doors clicked shut behind the boy.

Making his way to the bare altar, a simple rough hewn piece of Juniper from the Holy Land, he flinched as the wind picked up, rattling the panes of stained glass above the choirs' piano. Smiling softly he scooted onto the worn bench and tenderly slid his fingers over the keys. He didn't play often, but there was one song he was terribly fond of. As the first tentative notes rang out into the silent sanctuary he started to relax.

His skin glowed like moonlight on water against the black robes and piano. His eyes, two shimmering gems that put the rolling hills of Eden back lighting him to shame, or at least that's what _he_ thought anyways. As the last notes of Moonlight Sonata hung plaintively on the air startling applause thundered out of the darkness. He glanced up guiltily, panic making him push the bench back haphazardly as he scrambled to stand up. The splintering crash as it struck the altar making something in his blood run cold.

"My, my, but I do believe you just broke your precious relic, _Father_." The sultry voice oozed from just behind his ear. Spinning he made to flee the voice, but strong arms caught him tightly, pulling him back up against a strong, leather-clad chest before pillaging his mouth with a sinful tongue. Fighting vainly he managed to finally break away. He fled down the aisle away from the glowing ruby eyes and fiery hair, his eyes screwed shut as he hid away in the dark.

A bright red tongue flicked out over kiss swollen lips, a dark chuckle bubbling up around him, "Found you…Michael."

And then there was nothing but the darkness.

***

Michael awoke choking on a scream, tears and sweat streaming into his eyes, Vinny's arms wrapped tightly around his back. He gasped, clinging to the tank top and trying to breathe.

"It's okay, It's okay, Michael…shhh…Michael…"

Michael jerked back hard against the headboard. Vinny's eyes seemed to glow crimson for a moment in the wan light.

"Who…who are you?" he breathed raggedly.

Vinny's eyes narrowed just a fraction before he pulled back, "Mike, man, you know who I am." He flashed that cocky smile Michael knew and leaned back on his hands. "I'm your partner man, who'd you think I was?"

Michael relaxed a fraction and groaned, holding his head in his hands he slumped forward a bit.

"Sorry, Sorry…a dream. It's was all just a dream."

Vinny reached forward and ran a hand through Michael's damp hair, pulling the man in against him. "It'll be okay now." He glanced at the mirror across the room over Michael's shoulder, his chin between his collar and his ear…and smiled.

***

Breakfast wasn't much better than his non-existent dinner the night before. Smoke and sarcasm, though a lovely combination, tended to leave him more queasy than full. Jackson's attempt at omerice left a similar gut churning sensation. Looking at the greasy plate with it's childlike ketchup smiley face sitting in front of him brought back unpleasant reminders of just how hungry he was if he was actually considering choking down the burnt mess. Lifting his fork tentatively he about dropped the silverware when a large tan hand reached over and plucked it out from in front of him. Glancing up at Vincenzo questioningly he had to stifle an appreciative moan as a softly toasted cranberry scone with orange marmalade was placed down in front of him instead.

"Figured you might not be up for Jackson's 'home cooking' just yet," The red head mumbled. He'd barely been able to thank him before he was slinking away back into the kitchen.

"Tch. Idiots." Gabriel muttered around a mouthful of coffee. He flipped the newspaper and spooned another forkful of charred egg into his mouth, oblivious it seemed, to the taste or consistency.

"Gabriel, about yesterday…" he started pensively.

"Vinny put you in your place, right?" the blond cut him off abruptly.

"Excuse me?"

"He stopped you yesterday before stunning you and carried your ass all the way back here. This morning you're coming out of his room and the moron's just dropped off scones from two districts away on your plate with that stupid love-struck look on his face. So I'll ask again, he put you in your place yet?"

Michael blinked rapidly, a bright vermillion blush staining his face. "Um...no, not…I'm not really sure what you're getting at Gabriel."

Gabriel flicked his newspaper again and huffed under his breath, "Yeah, sure you don't. It's not a bad thing you know. Having someone care about you."

"You know what happened, Gabriel, even if he did, I could never…" Michael sat wringing his hands under the table and staring at the cranberry scone like it might just leap up and bite him.

"You gotta let it go. She's dead. Nothing you can do about it now."

"I know…I…"

_**Bzzz. Bzzz.**_

Gabriel tossed back the last swallow of coffee before picking up the vibrating cell phone.

"Gabriel."

"…"

"_Shit_. Yeah, yeah, we'll be right there. What number does this make?"

"Fucking hell. Fine. See you in five." Michael watched with a frown as Gabriel slapped the paper onto the table and called out for the others.

"Get your asses out here; we got a job to do." Grabbing his coat and keys he tossed a look at Michael tapping his shoes on over his shoulder as the two wannabe chefs ran around grabbing their coats and tossing insults back and forth.

"Don't forget your scone." He stated with a pointed look at Vinny's back. Michael had to smile, Gabriel might be a royal pain in the ass and a prick most of the time, but the man really did care about his team; even if he'd shoot himself in the head before acknowledging it.

Wrapping the light pastry up on a napkin he caught Vinny watching him out of the corner of his eye. The contented smile on his lips made something deep inside him flutter warmly. Maybe…

"_Now_ you assholes!"

_Maybe later_, he sighed as he thumbed the door lock and headed for the car.

***

TBC


	3. The Angel Raphael

**Agents 0058**

Saiyuki AU

85/MA

Warnings: Lots of blood and guts in this one, sorry kids, it's a dark tale of treachery and ickyness.

* * *

**Ch. 3 ****The Angel Raphael**

The rancid smell of purification made them gag. Michael crinkled his nose up in undisguised disgust and stepped slightly to the left, his foot hovering a moment over the glistening pool of scarlet and rose before toeing down tentatively. Jackson held Jeep back by the van, no use letting the dog get into the mess and foul up the perfect raccoon-patterned hide. Gabriel took a deep drag on his cigarette.

"Fucking fabulous." He spat out.

"Well, I do believe this has ruined my breakfast." He murmured softly, flagging down the lead detective and perusing through the crime scene report. Reading aloud he wandered over and lifted the soiled sheet, once as pristine as the clouds floating lazily above them.

"Age, seven. Sex, female. Name, address, parents…unknown. Cause of death…oh my…"

Vincenzo propped his head on Michael's shoulder and glanced down at the clipboard grimacing, "Fucking hell, guy cut her heart out and then cracked open her head like an egg."

"Eww…" Jackson gagged slightly at the wet sucking sound the cloth made as Michael pulled it back for a closer examination.

"Use of surgical tools by these serrated markings. Possibly a bone saw. But, look here, Gabriel, you see the slight indentation and discoloration at the right temple?"

"Man, I can't even see the temple under all that blood."

"Yeah, I see it. Vinny, shut it and go get the damn dog back in the car before he tries and plays fetch with her."

"Oh man, now I'm gonna hafta bleach my eyes later, thanks asshole." Michael shivered as Vinny's fingertips trailed along his shoulder blade as he grumbled and walked off, after last night it was getting increasingly difficult for him to focus when the man was so close to him.

"What do you think?" he asked softly, brushing a strand of once blond hair out of dead eyes.

"I think it's the same asshole as the other four."

"_Raphael_." Michael breathed, the name making something deep inside him quake.

"Yeah. Fuck. This is a God-damn nightmare. The press is gonna be all over this." He grimly rubbed his own temple, his lips curling up in disgust.

"I hate to sound callous, Gabriel…" Michael paused, a pensive look on his face as he traced the rough edges of the cut.

"Go on."

"Why us? This isn't our normal type of case and you know it." He glanced up from beside the body and flipped the sheet back over the vacant stare. Smoothing his palms over his trouser knees as he stood, clipboard pinned flat against his side by his arm.

"You notice something else about her? Other than the brain and heart being…well, gone."

"The autopsy scar, you mean? Yes, I noticed it, kind of hard not to with her being laid out without clothing and all."

"Hmph. According to the heads, she'll be missing every major organ, bone marrow, blood, skin, muscles, tissues…pretty much everything that can be harvested for transplant except the eyes. "

"Why?"

Gabriel shrugged and ground out the burnt cigarette under his shoe. "Who knows what gets this guy's rocks off?"

Michael frowned, "So he's harvesting the organs for the Black Market?"

"No, they'll have already been distributed to most of the state hospitals in the district by now."

"An Angel of Mercy? What about the eyes?"

"It's not the eyes you need to focus on; it's the brain and heart. We haven't been able to find a trace of them."

Michael paused by the crime scene tape, turning to Gabriel as he lifted its plasticy smoothness. "Nothing? What is he doing with them then?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? That's for you and the brain trust over there to figure out." He thumbed angrily towards Jackson and Vinny who were in a heated debate about who was riding shotgun back to the apartment.

Michael sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, 'I think I need a vacation."

"Not happening. You hit the street with that walking decency-citation and I'll deal with the kid."

Michael raised an eyebrow shocked, "That's mighty generous of you, Gabriel."

Gabriel grunted noncommittally as he stalked off towards the passenger's side door, "Move…now!" a ghost of a smile on his lips as gold and red hair fled to the back seat amid a raucous clamor of 'no fair's and 'bite me's. Michael slipped in to the driver's seat without a word, _how the hell did he always end up being the designated driver?_

***

"So, how much did the tight-wad give us?" Vinny leaned across the center column riffling through the small bag on Michael's lap.

"Vincenzo, please, this is work, not some adolescent field-trip."

"Yeah, but it's to the old-quarter! You have to have special clearance to get in here!" Michael stifled a chuckle at the man's enthusiasm; he was almost bouncing in his seat trying to simultaneously see everything that flashed by them and pilferer their financial resources for the week.

"The old-quarter isn't really any different than the United Sectors we live in, you know."

"Sure it is! It's where the money is. All the old tech…the space port, elevator, banking district, hell, every freaking government facility on this burnt out shit-hole of a moon is in the old-quarter." He leaned back, folded arms behind his head as he looked askew at his partner.

Narrowing his eyes he took in the slight tensing of Michael's hands on the wheel and the single bead of perspiration edging his hair line, "Hell, you've been here before, haven't you? That's why you didn't need directions at the gate."

"The old-quarter isn't anything as grandiose as you're thinking, Vinny. It's just a bunch of ostentatious abandoned buildings that should have been destroyed in the War like everything else was."

"Look, the war was what, a hundred years ago? No one cares about that anymore, it's old news."

"Then it shouldn't matter if I've been here before, should it."

"Unh, uh, you're not getting off that easy. You can't even get into the old-quarter without a special pass and like a dozen stars across your shoulders, there's no way I'm gonna drop this. So tell me, how the hell do you just present your ident card and the gate swings open all magic like?"

Michael ground his teeth together, spinning the wheel as he flew down an abandoned alleyway at breakneck speed, he didn't want to have this conversation now, not when they were….

"Holy hell." Vinny gasped, clutching the dash as Michael down shifted to a stop.

"What is this place?"

"The old L.I.M.I.T.s Lab." He stated flatly, his voice just barely edged.

"You serious? I thought this place had been burned to the ground."

"You know the story, right?"

"You mean how this was the cause of War?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, I mean, I know it from the training tapes. All Enforcers have to watch them."

Michael nodded, slipping out of the car soundlessly.

"In 2015 the United Nations declared open war on the newly formed United Arab States. With the threat of nuclear oblivion hanging in the balance a high tech conglomerate out of Asia sent a manned probe into orbit with the express purpose of interplanetary colonization. A means of escape if you will."

"Yeah, dumb luck saved their asses from the fire if I remember correctly."

"Exactly. News of the successful landing on the moon and subsequent viability of the living facilities created here created a stir in the wealthy circles. Suddenly everyone wanted a 'home on the moon'."

Vinny snorted derisively as he picked his way across the broken gates and scorched pilings at the front of the marble building.

"It was twenty years later that the side-effects of the reclaimed oxygen and water reclamation plants, along with the higher UV radiation was uncovered. Sterilization, ramped-up testosterone levels, lack of fear and shorter life spans all leading to the creation of the…"

"Clones." Vinny's face was a mask of indifference as they forced open the main doors to the building.

"Clones, yes. They served a purpose."

"Yeah, another war." Vinny bit out, his voice clipped and strained. They thumbed their flashlights on and scanned the cavernous room, moving as one towards the gaping maw that signaled the stairs ahead of them.

"The second war was a waste of time and effort. Why fight with soldiers that just keep multiplying effortlessly? Eventually Earth dusted us. The radiation blasts wiped out most of the old-quarter inhabitants and all the clones, only those individuals in the newly established United Sectors were safe behind their extra thick radiation shields."

"And that's where we come in."

"The Enforcers, breed in tubes like the clones…"

"But not!" Vinny cut in, his light scorching across dead panels and dusty bunks.

"But not," he acquiesced, "the Enforcers are the law both on planet and in the DMZ space in between here and Earth."

"Yeah, so why should I care about the history lesson again?"

A blinking red light caught Michael's eye in the dark. Walking over to it he sucked in a ragged breath and then pressed down, a harsh metallic grating like nails on slate quivering down his spine as he answered Vinny.

"Because of this, Vincenzo."

Vinny gaped open mouthed as banks upon banks of glass vials lit up around them, bloated bodies suspended in bubbling green liquid hanging limply under the wan light of overheads.

"Fucking hell, what in God's name?"

"I'm afraid God has nothing to do with it." Michael said blankly.

Vinny turned slowly, the sound of Michael's voice…something was off. "Hey, Mike?"

**_ZZZZ!_**

The last thing Vinny saw a dark hand crawling across Michael's throat, the taser held loosely in his partner's hand and dull green eyes.

***

TBC


	4. Enter Sandman

Agents 0058

Saiyuki AU

85/MA

Ch. 4: Enter Sandman

There was fire all around him. He could feel the heat scorching his face, singeing the too long strands of hair at his nape, the smell like burning popcorn cloying in its closeness. He coughed dryly, wiping at his tearing eyes with a grimy soot stained hand. There was blood on that hand, too much for his own good, but it wasn't all his either so he ignored its sticky surface and concentrated on the panel in front of him instead.

Leaning hard against the broken back of the office chair he reached over and tapped out the abort sequence. He waited. Tapping the code in again he brushed at the fringe over his right eye and waited for another count of twenty.

Twenty-one.

Twenty-two.

Twenty-three.

_**FFZZZ!!!**_

Sparks danced across the board; several of the lights went dead while others flashed an angry red. The accompanying shattering sounds horribly loud to his over-sensitized ears.

And then there was the exploding.

He almost laughed as his brain supplemented his internal dialogue of tech specs and calculations with another's apathetic voice, "I don't wanna explode Michael, can't we just…I don't know, hit it until it stops?"

He chuckled at the slightly bewildered voice even as the flesh of his fingers blackened around the end of two frayed wires. The entry sequence shut-off had been half melted during the fire, but he could still tell that it had a little human intervention in the not-working category.

"_Oaphsiel_ …" he cursed under his breath. He forced himself to take shallow breaths as the fumes of melting circuit boards wafted up around him, near choking him with their toxic poison.

He shook his head and peered out the broken glass security window. There were still a few lab techs fighting the raging fires with small, handheld suppression canisters, but he knew it was a losing battle. Sighing he slammed his hand down on the emergency evacuation button and turned from the room, his once pressed white lab coat fluttering in tattered strips of cloth around him like broken wings and molting feathers.

There was nothing more he could do here and if he was going to die he'd decided long ago he'd do it on his own terms. He needed to find Nathaniel.

***

Vincenzo watched through half-swollen and blood-shot eyes as Michael whimpered piteously across the room. He would have gone to the man, would have held him and whispered soothing nonsensical words and petted the downy chocolate hair, gently brushing it out of those mossy eyes. He would have done a dozen things to calm him, to quiet him…if he could move that is.

He growled in his frustration, his fingers twitching every time those dark lashes fluttered partially open and revealed the dull, lifeless orbs beneath. Michael was just as much a prisoner as he was, even if he was technically free of restraints. It had to be drugs, though he couldn't figure out what type. Something that could keep even the man's dark side at bay had to be powerful, was probably experimental, and dangerous as fuck.

He growled again.

Heavy metal grating was his answer. He tried to turn his head but the tight leather strap across his brow prevented him even that much movement.

"Noisy, isn't he?" the low, sultry voice filled the air around him.

He couldn't see the man, but he knew the type…sadistic _and_ perverted. Why did those two traits always seem to go together?

"Yeah, well, stop the drugs and I'm pretty sure he'd be quieter." He bit out angrily.

"But then I'd have to find another pair of restraints and I'm too busy to waste the time." He sounded bored, like he was watching the fucking lifetime channel or something.

Vinny thought furiously, there had to be some way to either get to Michael, or get the psycho to bring the man to him.

"I could probably get him to settle down; of course I'd have to be free…"

"Not gonna happen lover-boy." Came the quick response, though it did sound slightly more amused than a moment ago.

He sighed dejectedly as Michael let out another long, low moan of distress. "Well then, bring him to me, not like I can touch him or anything like this."

"And what do you think your mere voice could do to him?"

Vinny smiled cockily to the man behind the curtain, so to speak that is, from this angle who the hell knew if there even _was_ a curtain. "Oh, I'm pretty fucking sure he'd at least be quieter."

He could almost feel the amusement and disbelief rolling off the man behind him. If he could pull this off the guy'd have to walk in front of him to bring Michael to him, at least he'd see their captor. He shrugged internally, well, it was a plan at least.

He heard a soft chuckle from behind him as his gurney started to roll towards Michael's chair, "If you can't bring the mountain to Mohammed, then bring Mohammed to the mountain." The quixotic voice drawled in his ear.

He sighed dejectedly; well it _had_ been a plan. Oh well, he had bigger problems for the moment, starting with Michael and his freaky tormented moaning and shaking. He twisted his head as far as he could, which wasn't really saying anything until a sharp snick ripped past his ear and he was finally able to move his head freely, the angle of the bed still didn't allow him to see the shadowy man behind him though.

"Mike?" he called tentatively, "Yo, Michael, come on man, look at me." He blushed vermillion as the other chuckled again from behind him and leaned his head forward until his long hair slipped over Michael's closest hand, smiling triumphantly as a flicker of something darkened those green eyes.

He flipped his hair with purpose now, letting as much of it fall across the pale, clammy skin as possible and whispered Michael's name.

"Michael, come on, it'll be okay, you're fine, I'm…_hell_, I'm still here, it'll all be fine, so just relax babe, just relax."

He tried to be as soothing as possible, but he also wouldn't lie to the man. Not to Michael, not now. Vinny strained against the bindings holding him against the rock hard bed until he was able to rest his forehead against Michael's knee, it wasn't a grand feat of physical prowess, but it instantly calmed the trembling shudders raking Michael's thin frame.

"Well, I guess it wasn't a mistake to let you live after all, although I must say I'm disappointed in your chosen alliances. Do you even remember why you were sent here?" the dark voice asked humorlessly.

Vinny frowned, what the hell did that mean?

"Ha! You really don't remember anything at all do you?! Not even…" Vinny gasped as the gurney was ripped from Michael's side ruthlessly, a dark shadow falling over him as the once pleasant voice hissed dangerously in the dusky room.

"Not even me." It growled at him.

He felt a harsh stab as electricity exploded across his nerve endings, his voice ripped from him in an inhuman scream. All the while ebony eyes glittered down at him over pearly teeth.

And then everything went monochrome and finally…dark.

***

"It's his own fault."

"Shut up, Gabriel."

"Excuse me? I don't think I heard you correctly, _Michael_. You want to repeat that?"

"I **said**, shut it. I'm not dealing with your asshole tendencies today, go fuck a 'bot or something and leave us alone."

"I'm warning you, Michael, I can just as easily revoke you're _not dieing_ privileges as I gave them to you. So tell me once more, what did you say?"

"I. Said. Shut. Up."

"Come on you guys, just relax, its fine now, see, we're all here and not dead, so no one needs to go and be…dead or anything…umm…"

Vincenzo groaned. Whatever was being fought over out there needed to stop being so loud and give him an aspirin or a bullet to finish things or something equally less loud because his head was killing him. Felt like it'd been split in two and then sent through that machine that scrunched up the garbage into little tiny squares.

"Here, take this...there you go, slowly, don't drink too much or you'll choke. That's right, good, good…"

"Did you," his voice cracked and he tried again, not even bothering to open his eyes, he knew the hands holding him up against the warm hard line of chest and shoulder.

"Did you....just tell Gabriel to fuck off for me? 'cause, like, that's too fucking perfect." He grinned, wincing slightly as he felt his lips crack, the sting almost instantly smoothed over with a cool jelly and gentle fingers. Gods, just the feel of them rubbing over his lips made him want to do something stupid like try and taste them. He figured they'd probable taste like salt and tea and _him_. He also figured he'd get slapped or shot if he tried it given the current of tense anger still hanging in the air around them.

Maybe later.

He cracked an eye and groaned again, leaning heavily against Michael as harsh light flooded his senses.

"Where the hell?" he groaned, nuzzling in against Michael's chest in only partially feigned pain.

"Shove it!" Gabriel snapped angrily.

"Lilith! Patch the cockroach up and let's get out of here."

"Gabriel, please, such language in my clinic is not appropriate." Vincenzo glanced up at the soft-spoken voice and stifled the long whistle that was dancing along his lips.

From head to toe she was every man's wet-dream become flesh, long legs, tight ass, tiny waist and the largest pair of natural, and why he knew deep down that _oh my fucking God, _yes they were real, pair of breasts he'd ever seen was beyond his lizard brain mentality to fathom, but he did and they were and with that cute little face full of big doe eyes and pouty lips and long, long midnight hair…if Michael hadn't squeezed his arm just a bit when she leaned over to peer at them, her…endowments, jiggling tantalizingly in front of his mouth he would have said or done something utterly irreprehensible. And he would have loved every face slapping moment of it.

As it was he couldn't stop the, "Well _he~llo~, _darlin'" from slipping off his tongue or the smothered yelp as Michael stomped hard on his foot under the edge of the blankets. The man's dark green death glare was easily noticed and it gave him pause, why would Michael be pissed that he was checking out the merchandise if he didn't feel something for him as well? It was something he'd have to test out a bit he decided, you know, to make sure he didn't have a concussion and was imagining things or what have you.

The pretty woman frowned thoughtfully and ran a long, delicate finger down the side of Vinny's face, her pale pink nail tilting his chin as she examined the damage.

She clicked he tongue and smiled at the two of them, "Nothing major, some shallow cuts across his cheek that will probably scar, but it shouldn't be too bad. You on the other hand…" her deep amethyst eyes snapped to Michael's face as she leaned in close enough to bump noses.

"I want to see inside of you." Her voice was breathy and low and oozed fuckability. Vinny had a sudden image of her long hair whipping over her back as she rode Michael hard in his mind's eye and shuddered, a low moan escaping his lips. He caught Michael's quick glance and the girl's knowing smile for a moment before she stood ram-rode straight and glanced over her shoulder at Gabriel.

"I want to see his dreams, Gabe. Let me strap him in."

"You do realize how fucked up and cheep that sounds, Lilith?" Gabriel drawled lazily, his eyes narrowed slits of violet calculated wariness.

She flipped her wrist dismissively, "What do I care? But him…" jabbing a long finger back at Michael she smiled, "I want to see into his dreams."

Gabriel took another long drag on his cigarette before pushing off the door, "Fine. Do what you want, just don't call me Gabe anymore. Jackson, move it, you two idiots are on your own. I want them workable when you're done, Lilith, don't go breaking other people's toys."

Vinny heard an audible gasp from Michael as the woman spun on her heel slowly, a creepy smile twitching across her lips, "Oh, I wouldn't dream of it, love. I wouldn't dream of it."

Vinny never thought he'd flee a beautiful woman in his life, but the crack of two leather straps in those seemingly fragile hands and the odd glint in those dark eyes as she stalked back towards them made him fear for their virtues…what little they had anyways.

***

TBC.


	5. Don't Let Me Fall

Agents 0058

Saiyuki AU

85/M

Ch. 5: Don't Let Me Fall

-----------------------------------------

He sucked in a harsh, burning breath. There was something he was supposed to be doing. Someone he was supposed to find, to be with, he had to go, had to run, had to hurry and then…and then…

Light exploded behind his eyes. A scream, raw and bubbling with blood filled his ears. He reached for the shadow on the edge of his vision, it was watery and over lit and washed out to the point that all he could see was an outline, but he knew that outline. He _knew_ it like he knew himself, for it was his other half. His only truth.

He reached out vainly, clutching at air and gasping as his ribs burned painfully, the smell of smoke and burnt plastic filling his lungs as he waved at the nothingness that hung heavily between him and his desires. Biting down on his lip he pushed just a bit farther into the void of light, past all boundaries of pain and let his soul fall into the darkness of absolute need. He could feel something tearing within him, something dangerous and possessed and powerful…so powerful. It could help him. It could get _him_ back.

Him? Get who back? Who was he looking for and where was he and why was there so much pain filling him like a chalice full of blood red wine?

Red.

There was red everywhere, staining the floor and the sky and his hands and lips and his eyes…._his _eyes.

_Nathaniel. _

He shook his head of the cotton swathing his mind. No, who was Nathaniel? He knew no one by that name…Vi…Vinny. He knew Vinny and _he_ was swaddled in red from head to toe and was with him, here, now…Vinny! Where was he?! He was right here, right next to him in the corpse room and then there had been a spark of electricity and he'd felt like he'd backed up into something sharp and …

"Vi…n…cen…zo…." He stuttered, tiny puffs of his warm breath rustling the damp crimson curtain next to him on the bed.

He tried to move away from the man, found that too painful and decided Vinny could deal with his weight for a bit longer. His vision was swimming again. Reaching up to remove his glasses he found his nose void of the thin silver rims and sighed, _'well, that explains the vision then.'_

"Vincenzo…Vinny? Can you hear me?" he whispered into the soft curve of his ear, his stomach clenching as those deep garnet eyes fluttered open a sliver before slipping shut again.

"Okay. You just sleep then, I'll figure out a way to…oh." Michael twisted his shoulders slightly as he flopped his left arm behind his back. His numb fingers fumbled for the buzzing cell in his back pocket. After more than one near miss he finally managed to drop its slim silver form by his mouth. He pushed the send button with his nose, smiling as Gabriel's voice crackled over the comm. loudly.

"Where the…you…time it is?! Three…get back…you hear me!?"

"Gab…riel…We're at the LIMITs Lab, old quarter, send…help…" he never heard the litany of explicatives that burst over the phone, never heard the sirens or the dogs or Jackson bounding up to them, almost bringing the place down around their heads in the process of chucking the fallen beams from their backs or Gabriel's muttered curse as he toed the trail of blood away from the scene only to loose it down a burnt out hallway too smeared with ash and grime to see anything more than the puffs of dull black smoke that rose at every foot fall.

"Get out of the way Jackson and let the medics do their damn job."

"But we can't! I mean, _you_ _know_…" He glanced nervously at the two men carrying Michael and Vinny out of the wreckage and into the waiting ambulance.

"Tch. Idiot, those are Lilith's bastards. We'll meet them at the clinic in District 4 in about an hour." He waved the two men off, wondering for a moment if taking them to her Holy Bitchiness wasn't the stupidest thing he'd done that week. Glancing over his shoulder at the young man holding back the monstrous Shepard he almost cracked a smile. No, apparently not.

Getting into the driver's seat he waited a moment for Jackson to prod Jeep into place and latching him down and then crawl into place beside him on the bench before pulling out.

"So, Lilith?"

"Ungh. You remember her; she's the one that took a look at you after you woke up at the hospital."

Jackson scrunched up his nose in concentration for a moment before smacking his head and beaming at the blonde. "Oh yeah! But isn't she like a…"

"Man? Yes. Just don't say anything about it to anyone if you value your own pair. She's got enough power to make the higher ups ignore her presence and you do _not_ want to be on her bad side. Believe me." Tapping his half burnt cigarette against the steering wheel he punctuated the statement with a quick flick of ash out the window before turning onto the main road.

"If she's so powerful why is she in District 4?" Jackson queried confused.

He shrugged, "Who the hell knows? That old witch can handle herself, I wouldn't put it past her if she damn near owned the whole district by now; she certainly acts like she does."

Jackson leaned back into the soft leather of the sun warmed chair and mused about the situation they were in; something was flittering in the back of his mind, something…scary. He just couldn't figure out what it was yet.

***

"What the hell'd you give him?! I told you no fucking drugs! His system can't handle any more!! Fucking whore. I swear to God!" Gabriel ducked again, shielding himself behind a half opened door.

"I just give him a slight stimulant to wake him up! How the hell was I supposed to know he'd go all…what the hell do you even call him like this? And don't you fucking call me a whore, you ungrateful little prick!" An angry voice shouted back at him over the din.

"Dark! He goes dark!" Jackson hollered from the other side of the room.

"Dark?! That's the lamest fucking…OWW!! Why you little!"

"Don't go near him! Even you wouldn't stand a chance. We need to get a stunner or something, something to calm him down or knock him out!" Gabriel searched the floor around him, he'd had one when they came in….

"Got it!" Jackson's triumphant exclamation was quickly followed by a yelp of surprise, "Heyheyhey! Watch the claws, Michael!"

"Don't just stand there! Zap him dammit!!"

The whiz of electricity arching through the air caused their hair to stand on end.

"…seven…eight…nine…ten."

Michael's body went ridged before he collapsed at the foot of Vinny's bed. He was still smoking a little as the others crowded around him. Lilith prodded a boneless shoulder cautiously, "Well, that was interesting. So what is he?"

"A werewolf!"

"He's not a fucking werewolf, you idiot." Gabriel smacked the smart-assed kid over the head, watching impassively as the two goons picked him up and draped him across another gurney closer to Vinny's.

"Hmm…he's almost got vampirism-like traits, the extended canines, the unruly hair and wild, slit eyes, even the claws. You said he goes 'dark'? How so?"

"He doesn't know who you are, friend or enemy. He can move super fast and crush a man's skull with his bare hands." Jackson was almost beaming with pride as he ticked off his friend's monster-like traits.

"His night vision improves too. As does his sense of smell and taste, but I've only ever seen two people control him when he gets like this." Gabriel expelled a mouthful of nicotine laced smoke and glanced askance at Lilith.

"Who?"

"His last partner and this roach."

"Last partner?"

"Lailah, his wife."

"Lailah?"

"Are you going to repeat everything I fucking say? Yeah, Lailah."

"Where is she now?"

"Dead. Seems like even _she_ couldn't stop the darkness in the end."

Jackson tugged on his jacket sleeve like a lost child, he hated when the kid did that, made him remember how young he really was. "What?!"

"Vinny stopped him though. That day in the alley, he was gonna…and then Vinny got behind him, real fast and all and then he…."

Gabriel smoothed an unruly lock of hair from the clouded golden eyes in a fit of over protectiveness he'd never normally show around others. "Yeah, the roach did manage to get him under control before he stunned him, I'll give him that much," he huffed out.

"Take a look at them while we go through the stuff from the lab. Call if something happens."

Lilith grinned broadly, her nails lightly scrapping over Michael's chest as she walked around the edge of the bed from the two retreating figures. A dead female Enforcer, a wannabe vampire, and someone who could tame the beast within him…Gabriel always brought her the most interesting specimens. Her eyes glinted as she went about her tasks.

***

Michael groaned as another set of electric shocks rammed through him. His body convulsing, head and shoulders rising from the thin mattress pad only to slump back against it as the current fled.

"E..nough!" he ground out, willing his other side to come out enough to shred the restraints and dent the metal bed frame holding him prisoner.

"Well, that took long enough. You able to talk like a human or are you just a killer with a pretty face?" A syrupy voice oozed from across the room.

Green-gold slits eyed the woman up and down. She was pretty, in a Venus fly trap kind of way; death shrouded gluttony. Swinging his feet over the edge of the bed he cupped his mouth, a splitting headache and nausea threatening to do him in despite his anger.

"Wouldn't move too fast or too quickly if I were you. Not only were you tased and had a building literally fall on your head, but you were also drugged. Not sure of the chemical yet, but small bursts of electrical current seem to neutralize it's effects pretty well."

"Who?" his voice cracked unseemly behind his splayed fingers and he tried again, "Who are you? Where are we?"

"Lilith. Gabriel brought you to me for treatment." She turned her back on him and wandered from the room, pausing by the door and giving him a quizzical look, "Coming?"

Michael dragged himself to his feet, finding that he needed to pull on the dark strength lurking at the back of his mind to keep him upright.

"Lover boy over here might have died if you hadn't shielded him, you know? Of course that means you got pretty banged up when the room collapsed. Don't do anything stupid for a bit either. You've got 2 cracked ribs, a shoulder I had to relocate, and a twisted ankle. I'm writing a 2 week sabbatical for both of you and if that asshole tries to tell you differently, just tell him its 'doctor's orders'. I'd like to see the little shit tell me no again." She huffed between pursed lips.

Michael figured she was probably crazy if she thought Gabriel would give them two weeks to heal up, but it might be worth the ridicule if he could spend a little down time at the house. Lilith cast a surreptitious look over her shoulder at the dark haired man. He was definitely a looker. And the claws weren't a bad touch in her opinion, a few buckles and some leather and…

"Excuse me, but where is Vincenzo now?"

…and totally not batting for the right side, damn. Well, she technically did still have all the parts, and a few extras she was rather fond of, but it looked like this one was taken already. She sighed dejectedly as she waved Michael to Vinny's bed.

"Over here, love. He'll be out of it for a few more hours…"

Michael padded softly to Vinny's side. Reaching out a tentative hand he gently plucked vermillion strands of hair from the corners of heavy eyelids. Crumpling to his knees he rested his messy fringe against the unconscious man's shoulder and uttered a shaky sigh of relief. He'd be okay now. He'd be okay.

Lilith waited a long moment until Michael's breathing evened out. "Okay dear, come on. Gabriel wanted me to take a peek inside your head for a bit."

"I'm not leaving him, you want to rummage around in there, be my guest, but I'm not leaving."

She sighed with feigned exasperation, "You don't have to leave. There's a chair behind you; I just need you a bit closer to the neural imager."

He glanced back at the small, dull grey box sitting behind a plain wooden chair with its thin copper cords and wires strung precariously between the two. He raised a dubious eyebrow, "You're not planning on electrocuting me, are you? Because I must say, I think my tolerance is a bit higher than most and I've quite had enough electroshock therapy for the day, thank you very much."

Tapping her nails irritably on the box she frowned, "Get in, sit down, and shut up. Wouldn't want you to bite your tongue, would we?"

"And what exactly is the purpose of this contraption?"

"Brain scan, specifically dreams. Gabriel said you haven't been sleeping well and while you were unconscious earlier you were fitful, screamed even."

"They're just nightmares." he grumbled, slipping into the chair and fidgeting slightly as the cool metal was slipped over his brow and latched to the high back in a basket like fashion.

"Maybe, maybe not. How much do you remember of your childhood."

He grimaced and she moved on, "Teenage years? Gabriel said you were married once."

"Lailah. She's dead." He stated flatly.

"Yeah, kinda figured that one. When did you meet her?"

"We were kids together."

"Really? When did you propose?"

"Never really did actually."

"Why not?"

"We just went down to the Judiciary Hall and filled out the paperwork."

"When?"

"We were…" after several long moments of silence Lilith tried again, fingering the dials on the board behind him as she spoke.

"How old were you?"

"Eighteen."

"And she was?"

"Eighteen."

"Same age then?"

"We grew up together, no, that's not right, we…"

Lilith fiddled with another dial as she asked question upon question. "Where did you grow up?"

"A house."

"With your parents?"

"Yes, mom and dad and…"

"And?"

"And my sister."

"Sister?"

"Twin."

"What was her name?" She glanced over to the mirror across the room. Michael's eyes were a dull grey-green and unfocused. He'd slipped into a semi-trance as she'd up-ed the neural stimulator's dopamine levels.

"I don't know."

"Where did they go?"

"Away. Sent away."

"All of them?"

"Yes."

"They left you?"

"Alone. All of them."

"Where did you go next?"

"Church."

"Church? Not a new home?"

"No. Church."

"And after the church, where did you go?"

"School."

"School. How old were you?"

"Fifteen."

"Where did you meet Lailah?"

"At school."

"What did she say the first time you met her?"

"_I…I know you."_ She narrowed her eyes at the now slightly sweating figure sitting in front of her. He was having trouble focusing on her questions; there was something there on the edge of his subconscious. Something he didn't want to remember or admit. It probably had nothing to do with the lab, but if she could break down this first barrier, the others might crack enough for their purposes as well.

"Did she do anything?"

"She kissed me."

"First time you met?" she squeaked incredulously.

"Yes."

"Brazen girl; what next?"

"Slept together."

"First time?"

"Every time. All the time. Always together."

"You don't know what she meant about knowing you?"

"Shadows."

"Excuse me?"

"Shadows under the bed, have to run, to jump, the shadows will get you if you're slow." Stepping back unconsciously at the slightly panic ridden crazed edge to his voice she swallowed hard and narrowed her eyes at his creepy smile and glistening teeth in the mirror.

"…where are the shadows?" she whispered, half not wanting to know.

"Under our bed; have to run, have to jump."

"_Your_ bed?"

"Our bed…Lailah and mine."

"Jumping on beds is what kids do though."

"We are kids. Mom's going to yell at us again, can't let them know, can't, can't. Going to be broken, every family's broken. One to the moon, one to the stars, going, going, gone!"

Lilith watched in abject horror as Michael started to go a bit crazier; minute by minute, question by question. The regression techniques were working at least. Maybe a bit too well, but if he'd actually…his own _sister_?! She shook her head. Some part of them must have know, but to fool the blood scans at the Judiciary Hall was a feet she hadn't heard of before. Not that incest was terribly common or anything but…

"Michael? Tell me about the lab."

"The lab is gone. _Gonegonegone_!" he called out jubilantly in a singsong voice, his hips rolling back and forth in the chair as he rocked.

"No, it's only partially destroyed. Tell me about the lab and what you were doing there."

"Stars and stars and darkness. Red, red fire around my face and fingers in my mouth and hair. Boom!" Another bout of manic laughter filled the small room as he chucked, his hands splayed in a small bursting motion.

"Got what he had coming. Never take the sun from the moon, fire and ice and dark and light. Left me in the dark. The shadows tried to eat my feet. Ran and ran and _jumped_!"

A cackle burst from his lips, "I jumped. I jumped." The last line was a soft spoken litany across his shaking lips. Clutching his shoulders, Michael curled in on himself, rocking back and forth, his eyes darting back and forth under closed lids.

Lilith sighed and slowly turned down the amperage on the box until his head fell forward to rest on his knees. _Sorrysorrysorry_ brokenly strung together tumbled out of him in silent absolution as he drifted into dreamless unconsciousness, the last word from his lips though wasn't what she expected. She sighed as she rounded the desk and gently touched his bowed head, wiping the single tear from long lashes. "Nathaniel." He chocked out, a ragged whisper that seemed to shake him to the very core. He shuddered once and was silent.

"You hear all that?" she whispered after a long, pregnant pause.

"Yes." Gabriel muttered from the doorway.

"Have any idea what it means?"

"Some of it. Too little though."

"I'm not sure I can help with this one, Gabe. He's awfully broken."

*Tsk*

"Useless, all of you."

"_He_ might be able to help." She nodded at Vinny's sleeping form.

"Dear God, we're all doomed if we have to leave the fate of this mission in _his_ hands."

"Try and give them both a break, nephew. They might just surprise you."

"Call me 'nephew' again, you old hag and I really will cut them off you." He hissed.

"Try it, darling~!" she leered over her shoulder at him.

"Fucking queers all of you." He muttered, stomping from the room.

"At least we're not screwing the kiddies!" she called to his retreating back, a knowing smirk plastered across a bright slash of red lipstick.

She laughed openly at the slamming of her office door, "Some things never change."

***

TBC


	6. Ghost in the Machine

Agents 0058

Saiyuki AU

85/MA

Ch. 6: Ghost in the Machine

Gabriel leaned back against the still vibrating lab door and sighed, raking an ink smeared hand through golden locks.

"Ah, hell."

"Gabriel?"

"Jackson, I thought I told you to go through those vid feeds from the lab?" he muttered half-heartedly.

Jackson flopped back against the door, their shoulders and sides lining up seamlessly, warmth seeping through the small connection.

"Done. You're not gonna like it though."

"What the hell now?" he growled.

"Looks like we finally got a line on Raphael. Tall guy, black hair and glasses; can't see anything else before the feed goes dark. There's a problem though."

"What?"

"Vinny," he whispered conspiratorially, "he talks to him for a bit. Mostly stuff about Michael and trying to bring him out of some drug induced coma Raphael put him in, but…"

Gabriel opened one violet eye and stared down his younger partner, "But what?"

"But it sounds like they know each other. Raphael says some things to him, like 'you forgot your real reason for being here?' and 'even me?'"

Jackson paused for a moment, lips pursed as he chewed on the inside of his cheek, "Do you think they're actually working together? Vinny looked really confused when he saw Raphael though."

Gabriel closed his eyes and tapped out a new cigarette. Taking his time to fish out the lighter and then set the burning filter paper to his lips as he thought about what to do next. Michael would probably not remember the first regression treatment when he woke up again, which was good in the short term, bad in the long, but knowing that psycho queen of the damned she'd want to look into his head again for his short term memory and REM readouts. The stupid roach would have to be patched up as well. Damn it this was taking too long!

"Show me the feeds. I'll leave Vinny to Michael for now, but I want you to get a tracer to Lilith before they wake up."

"We're really gonna bug him?"

"I just want to know where he is. After this fiasco I doubt Michael will let him out of his sight, but you never know."

"Do you really think he'd betray us?" Jackson asked in a quiet voice.

Blowing out a lungful of gray smoke he briefly squeezed Jackson's fingers before pushing off the door and walking back into the spare room they had set-up shop in temporarily. It was going to be a long night.

***

"You can't be serious!" Jackson pulled up indignantly beside his friend's bedside; the rice sized tracking module tinkling in the glass vial in his hand.

"Of course I'm serious, little boy." Lilith tapped a high heeled foot impatiently, one hand on her hip, the other outstretched in demand.

"But! That's just mean! He'll notice for sure."

"How often do you look at your own ass? He won't notice it there, believe me." She waved dismissively.

"Gabriel, come on, help me here!" he whined piteously over his shoulder at the bowed head of his partner.

Snorting delicately, Gabriel ignored the two morons. He'd deal with it if absolutely necessary and not a second before.

"Can't you just put it in his arm or hand or something, I'm really, really sure one of them will notice." He glanced nervously at Michael's bed, the twitching of pale fingers proving the other was coming out of whatever dream he was in.

"Fine! I'll stick it in his arm, but don't be surprised if he finds the damn thing. Give!" She swiped the vial effortlessly in one fluid arch of lightning like movement.

Tapping the tiny module into her palm she lasered a tiny incision on the inside left bicep and thumbed it into place before sealing the cut with liquid skin. A smiley faced band-aid covered the spot nicely. She stuck a few more on over random cuts for good measure and jumped back just as Michael groaned and sat up.

"Michael!" Jackson cried. Gabriel looked up through long bangs, 'humphed' and then went back to whatever he was looking at.

"Jackson…Gabriel. Ms. Lil…" he fumbled over the name as she stepped in beside him, cool fingers splayed over his wrist as she checked his pulse against her watch.

"Lilith. Good to see you're up, Michael. How do you feel?"

"Truthfully, I have felt better." He tried a rueful smile and failed. "Vincenzo?"

"Beside you. He's still out of it; should come around soon though."

Breathing a sigh of relief the smile got a little less forced, "That's very good. I'm not sure I would have made it out of there without him."

Gabriel snorted, finally dropping his pen and looking up from the printouts and reports piled haphazardly across the table.

"Gabriel?"

"Don't be to sure about that. We've got some new information." He paused for effect and then pointed roughly at Vinny's sleeping form. "_He_ might be a traitor."

Studying Michael never got old in Gabriel's eyes. The man never did what you expected him to do, he was silent when he should be shouting and he laughed when he should be wailing in misery. It was just so uncharacteristically in character for him that he about fell out of his seat when Michael jumped up and flung a nearby scalpel across the room at him, the sharp point embedding itself in the plaster an inch from his left eye.

"I wouldn't say that again if I were you, Gabriel." He hissed.

"We have tapes, Michael. Raphael _knows_ him, knows him in a way he shouldn't. I'm not sure just how much is the truth but we need to be careful going forward."

"He got hurt trying to save me, Gabriel. There's no way he'd betray me!"

Vinny groaned, shifting in his waking. Damn but they were loud. He couldn't really tell what they were saying, just a lot of shouting and name calling. He caught a few words, mostly 'shut up' and 'fuck off' which was fine by him as long as the shouting stopped because really, was his head even still one piece?

He managed a croaked, "Did you....just tell Gabriel to fuck off for me? 'cause, like, that's too fucking perfect," into Michael's chest, and a few other random thoughts that seemed to make sense, but it wasn't until a pair of jiggling boobs and sharp pinch of Michael's nails digging into his arm brought him fully awake. The idea of being strapped into some creepy chair all old-school electrocution style wasn't pleasing either.

"Don't worry love, this isn't for you." She purred at him, a long nail dragging down his cheek.

"Yeah, somehow that doesn't feel very reassuring, darlin'." He drawled, eyeing Michael's reaction to the chair as he carefully sat down and pulled the head piece on without talking. The whole thing was fuzzy and his memories were kinda jumbled together, but he figured out that he'd been pretty smashed up back there in the warehouse and that Gabriel had somehow managed to coax his beauty of a partner into letting some she-man play Dr. Frankenstein with his brain. He wasn't sure which part made his insides go all j-ello like more, the woman with the wires or his partner's creepy far-off look of resignation.

"Hey Mike, you even know what you're doing with that thing?" he asked concerned.

"…yes, I believe so. Like this, correct?" Michael asked Lilith's reflection in the mirror perplexed.

"Perfect! See, you do remember."

"Remember…?" he murmured.

"Okay, now I want you to close your eyes and take a deep breath, this will hurt like hell at first and then it should be like you're watching a movie, just repeat what you see and hear and smell, okay?"

"_Waitwaitwait!!" _Vinny called out, reaching vainly across the small divide to the man just as electricity arched between the wires and Michael let out an earsplitting feral scream.

"AH!!" Michael gripped the chair arms hard enough to splinter the edges. 'Hurt like hell' didn't do the sensation of having his head ripped open in scalding, jagged edges, justice.

"Mike!"

"He's fine, he's fine, believe he took more than this earlier." She mumbled under her breath while turning several dials back and forth until Michael's head dropped suddenly and his shoulders slumped forward. Vinny lurched towards him, hissing in pain behind clenched teeth as he stopped his friend from falling out of the chair, the dead weight landing painfully on some rather impressively broken ribs.

"Mike? Come on man, talk to me, you okay in there?" he asked softly, fingers brushing the fringe of chocolate away from fluttering eyelids.

"Vi…?"

"Michael, do you hear me?" Lilith cut through their little moment as Vinny shot daggers at her.

"Yes." Michael responded dazed.

"Good. I want you to go back to the lab. You're standing in a dark room. There are panels all around you but you can't see a thing. The smell of smoke and dust is heavy in the air but you don't seem to notice. All you see is the one glowing blue light in front of you. Do you know where you are?"

"In the lab."

"Very good. There's something there in front of you, you reach out a hand and do what?"

"Open the windows. The fire system isn't working. The vents aren't opening and if I can't get them to kick on everyone will die."

"Everyone? You mean you and Vincenzo?" she asked softly.

"Who? No. Everyone. The station can't take another hull breach, but I can't get the vents to work."

Lilith watched as his heart rate started to pick-up. Whatever he was seeing, Vinny's confused expression proved it wasn't the same lab they'd just come from.

"Walk me through it, Michael. What are you doing?"

"I'm pounding on the release button, the windows won't open. I can feel the fire through the plasta-glass. Any hotter and all the techs inside are dead. I have to do something!"

"Mike…" Vinny whispered, leaning in closer to his friend.

Michael flinched at the sound of Vinny's voice, his breathing easing a bit as he continued speaking. Even this far under the red-head still had a lot of influence over the man she noted.

"There's a chair, I grab it, a few harsh slams and the glass shatters under the pressure; it looks like snow in the smoke."

There's shouting. I'm telling them to run, that I'm going to vent the whole damn level and they need to escape before everything gets sucked out."

"'Sucked out'?" She queried.

Michael didn't answer right away. He titled his head to the side like he was listening intently to something.

"…explode. I don't want to explode, Michael." A new voice chimed in. It wasn't Michael's, at least insofar as it was Michael changing his voice to sound like someone else. Someone distinctly similar to a certain man sitting mere inches from those screwed shut green eyes and floppy brown hair.

Vinny went ridged as he recognized his own voice and distinct drawl from those perfect lips. How the hell did he figure into Michael's dreams?

"_Nathaniel_." Michael breathed, his fingers twitching on the arm rests between them as a shudder tore its way down Michael's spine.

"It's not over yet, Michael!" A new voice chimed in. The dark, angry bent to the words sent shivers down both the watcher's backs. Vinny gritted his teeth and tried not to pull away. He _knew_ that voice.

"One day, Michael! I swear it! I'll bring him back. You will pay for taking him from me, I'll take everything you love. Everything you hold dear and fling it into space just like you did to him!!"

Michael arched his back suddenly, sparks flying as the cage crashed to the floor, electricity dancing across the concrete like lightening in a bottle. His eyes shot open, the dull green now vividly alive and terrified as he screamed, "Qaphsiel!"

Vincenzo and Lilith could only watch in abject horror as things started crawling across Michael's skin, dark, spiny things that drew pin-pricks of blood across the porcelain like skin as they writhed and pulsed with his every breath. Things that seemed inhumanly _alive_.

***

TBC


	7. Through the Looking Glass

**Ch.**** 7: Through the Looking Glass**

Michael's scream brought everyone running—Gabriel and Jackson, even Lilith's two lab techs/body guards. The sight of Vinny clinging to a very distraught and completely crazed looking Michael, his right hand bone white as it tried to crush his larynx. Vinny's hair fluttering around him in a crimson cloud while he kicked vainly at the air brought them to a standstill halfway through the open door. Lilith lay in a tumbled heap behind the desk, blood oozing out of three gashes across her forearms, claw marks by the look of it.

Gabriel took a steadying breath and cocked his gun.

Vinny was being chocked to death and he knew it. Any minute now he'd black out and never wake up. No more fantasies of green eyes and pale hands. No more food fights with the brat and no more bitch slapping fests with their droopy-eyed asshole of a leader. He would have smirked at the irony of being done in by the same hands he jerked off to, if he had enough breath left to smirk that is. He fought to pry Michael's fingers just a bit looser, the tell-tale sound of the tiny hammer on Gabriel's gun being pulled back jarring through his other senses. It was now or never.

"Mi…*hak*…ch…ael…. *hakhak*!" He focused every bit of will power and strength he had to lean in and, though he couldn't reach Michael's face from his lofty position, he could reach his hands. Flicking out his tongue he licked a hot, moist line over Michael's wrist almost crying out as those dusky _things_ moved under his tongue.

All at once there were sharp little pricks as dark black-green tendrils forced their way between his lips and inside his mouth. They hurt slightly as they ran up and down the length of his tongue. It took him a moment to realize as they forced their way farther into his mouth that he could breathe easier…Michael was letting loose his grip on his throat.

Drawing him in close against his chest Michael nuzzled, cat like, into the side of Vinny's neck, his warm, panting breaths stirring the little hairs at his nape. Vinny shuddered as a long tongue flicked out to trace the line of the wildly thumping vein just below his ear, down his throat and across his heaving Adam's apple before it disappeared beneath the bandages wrapping his chest.

"Fuck!" He expelled roughly as Michael slammed him onto his abandoned gurney and climbed over him. It was then that Vinny noticed the golden, slit eyes and from somewhere behind them, the cold metallic gleam of Gabriel's antique Smith & Wesson.

"Gabriel! We're good man, no need to go and shoot anyone!" He coughed out around retreating (what were those, vines?!) and the clawed fingers that were quickly taking their place.

"Just get the Doc and get out! I'll be fine, go!" he shouted, half choking as Michael forced his fingers farther than he was able to take and gagged.

"…."

"I mean it! GO!!" He pushed up just enough to aim the last command at Gabriel, locking eyes for the briefest of moments before Michael followed his movement and growled at the rest of the room, the claws on his left hand scoring grooves in the metal bars of the bed.

"Fucking hell," Gabriel ground out, uncocking the gun and waving the others back out of the room. The men hauled Lilith's unconscious form after them before slamming the door shut and barring it. There was no way they were going to let that monster out if they could avoid it.

Vinny watched slightly panicked as the heavy metal door swung shut and the lock bar was dropped into place on the other side. Oddly though, he felt a lot safer with just the two of them in the room. That fucking trigger happy s.o.b. Gabriel had a tendency to shoot first and _not_ ask questions later. With the others gone he was pretty damn sure he knew where this was leading to, but he had to try and get through to Michael, if he left things the way they were the other man would never forgive himself.

He pushed softly against Michael's shoulders and struggled to sit up. He didn't want to dislodge the man, but he had to be able to speak!

"Mike?" he mumbled around thrusting fingers; pulling his head to the side and back as he fought for freedom. When that didn't work he pushed his knee up between the man's legs and ground it softly into the obvious bulge in the dark slacks. Michael growled low, his eyes slipping half closed as he rose up and away just enough to trail a line of saliva from Vinny's now vacant mouth to his chest where those same clawed fingers kneaded the flesh, a deep rumbling vibrating through the his lithe form.

"Okay, okay, now. Michael, can you hear me? I'm not going anywhere, but I need you to come back to me a bit. Can you do that? Look at me, look at me, Mike." He reached out tentatively and ran his fingers through silken mahogany tresses, scratching blunt nails across his scalp as he did so. Smiling as Michael rolled his head into the contact. It was like petting a big cat.

He shifted slightly on the bed, noticing for the first time just how impossibly narrow it was. Michael caught his eyes at the movement and grinned Cheshire like. Seeing that mouth full of pointed teeth made him pause, the gulp audible as he squirmed back from Michael slightly. _At the very least he wanted his whole body on the damn bed! _he thought grudgingly.

"Now hold on, I'm not going anywhere, but you gotta give me some room to lay down all the way!" he squeaked at those needle-like claws bit into the soft skin of his arm.

Michael huffed dejectedly, a pout starting to form on his lips and man was that weirdly endearing coming from him. He would have been content to stay like that for a moment, his arms all full of Michael's warmth, breath shallow and rapid as the brunette shifted against him constantly in a long, undulating wave of friction along all the right places. That was until those claws of his sunk into his flesh like jelly and ripped a chunk of rather vital bicep out into his palm.

"Holy Mother of! FUCK!!! Jesus, Mike!" He screeched, bolting upright and gripping his arm to staunch the blood flow. His red eyes wide as saucers and Michael leaned down and lapped at the flowing ruby water. He couldn't figure out if he should be disgusted or aroused at the sight.

Vinny sat there watching in morbid fascination as Michael's sandpaper tongue flicked in and out of his mouth. Several long, tense moments later his friend finally sat back on his knees still crouched over Vinny's prone form, but with a much calmer look in his cat-like green-gold eyes. If Vinny had to describe him, he'd have said Michael reminded him of a large, satiated cat.

His arm throbbed in a steady, dull wash of sensation with only flashes of brilliant, mind numbing pain when he prodded it gently with the fingers of his other hand. Glancing sideways at the other he cleared his throat and pushed himself up, Michael shifting with only a small growl of displeasure.

"Okay, so you wanna tell me why you just shredded my arm?" He groused, flesh already bruising under his protective hand.

"Vi.." Michael cocked his head to the side and tried again, a perplexed look on his features as his tongue met pointed teeth oddly.

"Vin…cenzo. Vincenzo. Track…tracer." He finally managed, working his jaw to try and work out the kinks.

"Tracer, beneath your skin, Gabriel…they think, you're a traitor." He was watching Vinny's expression hawk like through out the explanation, hoping to see righteous indignation or confusion or hurt flit across his partner's face. He was not expecting the look of thoughtful internal debate.

"Tell me…tell me they are wrong, because I almost killed him for suggesting it. Vincenzo, you wouldn't betray me, would you?" He queried, sliding in closer to Vinny's chest, a long fingered hand pressed flat against the tan surface.

Vinny's head shot up, "No! Look, that prick said some things back in the lab. I'm…I'm not really sure what they meant. Maybe he was taunting me, maybe not. There are…_things_, about my past, that I haven't told you." At Michael's narrowing eyes he sped on, trying to alleviate the growing tension between them.

"I…I don't remember much before a year ago. Whenever I try and think back, I get these jumbled up images that don't make any sense. So no, I wasn't lying, I don't know that prick, at least, I don't think so." He mumbled, head bowed until his long hair fell around his face like a curtain.

Michael sighed softly and pressed in closer, Vinny's breath warm on the nape of his neck as he burrowed in against him. "Promise?" he whispered, all fight leaving him as Vinny's arms wrapped around him securely.

Vinny carded his fingers through the soft fringe of brown cascading over Michael's eyes, pushing it away gently until he could see, really see, Michael. He smiled kind of wistfully as he brushed dry, cracked lips over the fluttering eyelids. Pulling Michael in crushingly against his chest he propped his chin on the top of Michael's head and breathed out raggedly. "Yeah, I promise. I promise."

Glancing across the room to the mirror, his fingers toying with writhing vines and fluttering hair…Vincenzo smiled.

***

"Are you sure it's safe to let him out like this?" Jackson questioned, watching as Michael and Vinny got into the van gingerly, Jeep bounding in beside them.

Gabriel glanced through his equipment list once more, his eyes barely lifting from the page to scan the two; their patchwork of stark white bandages startling in the dying light of early evening.

"Can't help it. Michael ripped the damn tracker out of his arm. We'll just have to wait and see." He snapped the folder shut with quick efficiency and brushed past the petulant looking Jackson, their fingers just barely grazing as he did. The boy nodded solemnly, slammed the sliding door shut and climbed in the passenger's side, fingers tingling at the brief, but welcome contact. It felt like ages since Gabriel had touched him last.

"So, we allowed some R&R like the doc suggested, oh fearless leader?" Vinny quipped from the back seat, an arm full of Michael while the other fended off Jeep's slobbering kisses.

"After that little stunt?! Lilith revoked any and all privileges you _might_ have gotten out of me. While you two idiots were licking each other's wounds we got a call. Another body showed up on the fringes of District 6…her ident's been confirmed as Nix."

"Shit." Vinny groan, one hand clenching the fabric of his jeans in anger.

Michael glanced up at him, his eyes still unfocused, ghostlike vines etched across a bruised cheek. "Nix?"

Jackson squirmed around in his seat until he was facing the pair, eyes wide with worry. "Hey, wasn't Nix that vid-junkie you turned informant a few months back?"

Vinny slumped back in his seat, hair trailing over the head rest as he took a shuddering breath. "Yeah, good kid, too young to be playing in the deep end, but she knew _everyone_. Fucking hell. Damn brat was the best vid-watcher out there. Ran 120K Gig through her cerebral jacks on a slow day."

Jackson let out an appreciative whistle as Vinny scrubbed his face with one bandaged hand. "Man! I can't even deal with 120Mg! She must have been close to frying herself if she could process that much data off the net!"

Gabriel humped, "She was a vid-junkie. Couldn't handle being taken offline for more than a few hours at a time, damn near slept jacked into the network and you think that's impressive?"

"Hey!" Vinny snapped angrily, "she might not have had the best luck offline, but she was a decent kid. Tripped the rim and had no problem cyber-stalking some of the worst criminals out there, your asshole. Least you could do would be show her some respect."

"Why? She'd dead. Nothing can change that." He glanced into the rearview mirror and held Michael's eyes, "You can't bring people back from the dead. Shit just doesn't work that way."

The rest of the drive was held in stunned, sullen silence.

***

Heaven's Gate was housed in an old supply depot on the outskirts of District 6, lovingly referred to as the Fringes to those that lived there. Surrounded by barbed wire, derelict buildings, a bomb shelter and illicit vid-houses, it was the epitome of seedy, underworld activity. Gabriel flashed his ident badge at a rookie enforcer who looked very much like he was about to pass out from the stench of the open sewers or the sound of random junkies being ill from vid feed-overload. Either way he didn't want to be anywhere near the guy when he inevitably lost his lunch.

"Tch." Wrinkling his nose at the smell he picked his way over the debris littering the empty dance floor and stopped, for once completely taken aback.

"Well that's just weird." He heard Vinny breathe out by his ear.

"Hmp. Either she fell or…"

"Oh my." Blonde and red turned in unison to glance at the still wobbly Michael, but at least he was human looking again, that was some thing.

"Speak." Gabriel bit out.

"It's the hanged man. From ancient Earth's Pagan traditions, it means accepting God's will, giving up control, and ending the struggle; just to name a few." He shrugged slightly.

"And here?" Gabriel asked, tapping his pen irritably.

"Hmm..." Michael picked his way across the blood soaked floor to examine the body more closely. "Well, there's an autopsy scar, the eyes are sown shut and the scalp has been restitched to the skull."

"Eww…" Jackson chimed in, turning faintly green.

"Yes, well." Michael prodded his fingers in between the locked jaws, the crack as they popped apart ear-splitting in the quiet stillness of the club.

"Okay, that was completely gross, Mike." Vinny looked a little green around the gills himself Michael noticed, smiling faintly.

"There's something lodged in her mouth. Gabriel, hand me the tweezers please."

Gabriel responded by tossing his med bag at the hunched figure. "No way I'm getting 500 cred shoes gummy with some junkies insides." He glared balefully at Vincenzo's muttered _prick_ comment and flipped his file open, hitting the record button on the micro-disk imbedded in the plasta insert.

"What is it Michael? I'm recording."

"Female, age around seventeen years, indent name Nix Maricol, autopsy scar indicates removal of internal organs. Eyes sown shut, scalp cut away, skull opened, brain removed, and then everything was resown by all accounts. Noticed disjuncture of jaw, after breaking said jaw enforcer located…"

"It's an old L.I.M.I.T.s ident badge belonging to one: Raphael Gantz." He looked back over his shoulder at the group, eyes slightly unfocused, brittle smile creeping across his face. "Isn't that…interesting…"

"Hell. Vinny, go get your partner before he goes over to the dark side again and let's get out of here. There's nothing we can do on this rock anymore." Gabriel tapped out a cigarette and held the burning wick of his lighter up to his lips. The end caught and crinkled as it burned, acrid smoke wafting around his golden head, creating a halo effect in the pulsing lights of the club.

He took a deep drag and then looked over his team, bloody, bruised, and beaten. Dropping the hit of nicotine he crushed it underfoot angrily. "Get your shit together, we're going up there." He called out angrily before turning on his heel and stomping from the crumbling building with its mutilated corpse.

"I fucking hate space."

***

TBC


	8. Enter the LIMITs

**Agents 0058**

Saiyuki AU/58/MA

**Ch. 8 Enter the L.I.M.I.T.s**

"Space, the final frontier," Jackson quipped pulling his helmet on swiftly before Gabriel could slap him with his clipboard, a broad grin hidden behind plastaglass and metal.

"Stuff it. I'm not in the mood to deal with you three idiots _and_ ZeroG for the entire ride." Gabriel bit out angrily while fidgeting with his oxygen readout.

Vinny snorted at the look of righteous indignation the blonde gave him before leaning over to Michael and tapping his visor.

"Yo, how long is this thing supposed to take, anyways?"

Michael checked the time on his sensor pad, "Should be about a thirty minute ride up in the elevator to the sub-atmo station, and then a forty-five minute shuttle run up to the orbital station itself. So…hour and twenty minutes give or take."

"Hmph and we gotta sit here staring at the back of their heads the whole time?" Vinny groused.

"Well, we'll be free to move around in the shuttle, but it's not exactly large and spacious you understand." At Vinny's blossoming leer he rolled his eyes and shook his head, "and I'll be flying, so you'll have to find a way to keep yourself amused during that time."

"You're gonna fly us?!" Jackson bounced over to them, the slight rocking of the space elevator making Gabriel queasy, which he showed in the most loving manner he could…he slapped the boy again and slunk down into a corner trying not to heave into his helmet.

Vinny chuckled openly at Gabriel's discomfort earning him the back of a gloved middle finger and the darkest scowl the blonde could manage while not going cross-eyed and green.

"In answer to your question, Jackson, yes, I am rated for space travel in several types of transports. I thought it best if we didn't involve anyone outside the team on this mission." Michael replied gently, patting the boy's shoulder as Jackson glanced back and forth between his friends and his partner. His curiosity satiated for the moment he retreated to Gabriel's side.

"Man, you really suck at this, Gabriel. How did you manage before?" Jackson squatted down beside the surly man and rubbed awkward circles onto his back.

"I was flash frozen, remember asshole?!" he ground out behind clenched teeth.

Jackson tipped his head to the side and tapped his chin thoughtfully before beaming at him, "Nope, I was too!!"

Green and violet eyes rolled heaven wards while red-eyes narrowed fractionally, "Someone wanna explain the whole flash frozen thing or do I have to get creative and guess?"

Michael glanced askew at Gabriel's back before clearing his throat, "It's a long story…"

"No it's not." Jackson supplied helpfully, glancing back over his shoulder at the tense red-head, "We woke up at the hospital after being in stasis, what, three years ago now? They said the pods came from space, so we've been out _here_," he waved his arm at the black void outside the window for clarification, "before."

"The three of you were frozen in stasis chambers together in space?" He asked skeptically.

"Well, not exactly. _They_ were frozen in space; I was just along for the ride." Michael answered sheepishly, nervously glancing at the notes on his pad.

"'Along for the ride'?" he parroted.

"Enough, we're transferring in five so shut up and sit down. I hate this part." Gabriel grumbled bracing himself as the elevator jerked to a stop and they all lost their balance for a moment as gravity shifted and they were suddenly floating in ZeroG.

"We're gonna have a talk about this later, Mike. No secrets, you got it?" Vincenzo murmured in a closed comm. link as he floated by.

Michael swallowed and nodded.

***

Gabriel sighed as Michael docked the shuttle effortlessly, a small, slightly bewildered expression flittering around the edges of his eyes as he shut everything down. Gabriel glanced down at the pinched expression as he passed.

"I know you're interested in him, Michael, but you can't tell him anything else about us. The information stored in your head could lead to one of the highest National Security crisis we've had since the war and you know what'll happen if you talk." Gabriel paused for a moment, hand on his shoulder before he pushed off towards the airlock, "I don't want to have to kill you again."

Michael bowed his head in acknowledgement. No, he couldn't tell Vincenzo about their pasts, but Gabriel seemed to be forgetting…he couldn't remember most of it anyways.

***

"We need to get up to the command desk on level A-2." Michael held out the holo-display as they walked, pointing to a red blinking line three-quarters of the way up the schematic.

Vinny leaned over and tapped something across the council, "So we need to follow this route then…With life-support off above us we're gonna have to space walk at least three times across some of the broken bits of the attached ships to get to the heart of the station. They're barely a half klick in distance, so one good 5 second bust should propel us the correct distance."

He glanced up and then back at the projection, "Yeah, this next left should take us to the lift to section F, and then from there we can take corridor 2.3 to 3.4 and then we can hop up to section E. That sound good to you, Mike?"

Michael stared at Vinny like he'd grown a second head finally managing to stammer out a _finefine _as the followed after the looping figure of Vincenzo picking his way over the burnt out husk that was left of the station.

Dropping back a bit Gabriel flipped their open comms over to silent and signaled Michael, "This _is_ the right way, correct?"

"My memories are hazy Gabriel, but yes, I believe Vincenzo is completely correct in his assessment of the quickest, safest route we could take to get to the central computers."

"Funny how someone who has never been off planet knows where to go, huh?" Gabriel muttered.

Michael glanced quickly between the two men, "You still think he's in league with 'Raphael'?"

"Not sure. But we need to figure out who this guy is and fast. I don't like people dragging up my past."

"What about Jackson?"

"He knows to keep his mouth shut if that's what you're asking." Gabriel huffed out, his fingers drumming a statico beat on the board by his side.

"I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to keep it from him though." Michael warmed.

Gabriel grunted at that, turning to cast a weary once over the pale brunette, "That your way of telling me the latest batch of synth-drugs are wearing off?"

"No. No, it's just that the dreams…the _memories_ are coming more frequently. They're almost voracious in their vividness anymore. Since…since the lab I haven't been able to get much real sleep. I'm afraid it won't be much longer before the two realities start melding." He paused to take a deep breath and steady his nerves before locking eyes with the other man, "I might not be able to be saved this time, Gabriel."

Gabriel stopped and leveled a searing gaze at him, "Who says I saved your ass the last time? If I remember correctly you got up and took charge of your own life after the sentencing. All I did was sign a piece of paper and subject you to that jabbering banana brained monkey three days a week. If you still think after all that, after _her_, and now _him_, that someone else has to swoop down on a fucking white steed you _are_ crazy. You did it before. Do it again."

He turned on his heel and stomped off after the other two, speaking up loud enough for them to hear as he shouted back down the corridor at him, "And keep an eye on that flee-brained partner of yours; I never did trust red-heads."

Michael ducked his head to hide the small smile at Vinny's choked retort and obscene hand gesture. As the lift door swung open and they piled in he breathed out a sigh of relief. Things were finally starting to feel normal again.

***

The flashing lights as they passed level after level were starting to make him drowsy. Michael felt his head growing heavier, and started a few times before he finally fell propped up between the lift wall and Vincenzo's left shoulder, the warmth of another body, even through the space suits, enough to lull him asleep.

***

He was watching the small gray moon from orbit, its crystalline city-domes stretched out across the northern face glittering up at him. The station rocked and shuddered as another breach erupted below him, the vented oxygen and fire bursting into brilliant color for a moment before the void of space enveloped it; snuffing out its existence like he'd done to so many others in the past few hours.

"This where you've been the last hour?" a soft voice asked by his ear.

He smiled as strong arms wrapped around him protectively, the solid warmth of the other's chest helping to calm his nerves.

"Nathaniel." He groaned, turning in the other's hold and staring into the deep burgundy wells of his eyes. Running his fingers, some tinged black from trying to fight the fires, through short black-red lengths he sighed exhausted.

"I thought you were coming right back. I've got the kids in stasis already, they're good to go, although Gabe's got a shiner from where he and Kamuel got into who was sleeping where earlier." The red-head chuckled at the memory.

"And Raphael?" he asked tentatively.

"We lost him in the last explosion down on C level." He shook his head sadly, "That's half the reason why Gabriel and Kamuel were fighting to begin with." He ran a grimy hand through short locks and sighed, holding Michael closer to him with one strong arm, "All of your hard work gone and for what? Just because Qaphsiel couldn't take being second place to a six year-old." He spat out acidly.

Michael shook his head, "No love, it's because I couldn't finish him when this all started. If I had…if I'd had the courage to kill him before the illness progressed to stage three none of this might have happened and now it's too late. Too late for all of us."

Nathaniel glanced down sharply into sad forested eyes and gasped, tilting Michael's chin to the left he traced the dark bloom spreading over his lover's cheek.

"How long?" he choked out.

"Soon. Too soon."

"But the drugs!?"

Michael shook his head, long hair flopping around his chin and hanging over his right eye like a messy curtain, "They were destroyed in the first batch of failures. All the experiments are gone too. It's just us, the kids…"

They glanced up as a howl of gut wrenching agony ripped across the intercoms.

"And _him_," Michael breathed. "I have to stop it now, _here_ and you have to protect them, they're the only ones who will be able to stop him should I fall. You've got to protect them, Nathaniel, protect them or we all fall."

He leaned in and captured Nathaniel's pursed lips with his own, sealing them together for a long painful moment before he wrenched himself from the only warmth he'd ever know and fled down the hallway.

It was time to finish this.

***

TBC


	9. A Loosing Battle

Kato-ze!

Agents 0058  
58/M

AN: Listen to Placebo's Running Up That Hill

**Ch.**** 9: A Losing Battle  
**  
Michael's head shot up, cracking painfully on Vinny's helmet as the other bent close to peer into his. He felt racked with guilt, fear and a foreboding sense of doom. There were tears in his eyes and his jaw ached for some reason. He wished he could throw away the helmet and rub the sore spot over his cheek.

"Mike, you okay man?" Vincenzo asked concerned, tilting the helmet back and forth trying to see through the glare of the overhead lights' sporadic flashing.

Michael looked past Vinny to Gabriel and Jackson. Closing his eyes to take a steadying breath that rattled his chest only slightly, he leaned into the warm hand on his shoulder, the flush it produced across his skin itching somewhat.

"Yes," he whispered, collecting himself, "Just a bit tired I guess." His smile was brittle and pinched around the edges as he pushed past Vinny. Vincenzo held on tight, slamming his palm against the lift door, pinning it closed between them and the shocked pair on the other side. He could hear Jackson over the comms before he tapped the line closed and stared Michael down though the yellow film of the visor. In the off lighting Michael's eyes almost appeared golden.

"Talk to me, Michael. You're holding back and it's eating you up inside."

Michael glared at the red-head, **_he _**_was holding something back?! _A low growl escaped his lips as he tore at the seems of his suit, the clips holding the helmet on clicking partially open before Vinny slapped his hands away and forced the seals closed on the hissing oxygen again.

"Are you fucking nuts!?" he hollered shocked. "Hell Mike, you're gonna kill yourself you take that off in here! Just tell me what's wrong; I can't help you if I don't know anything!" He cried out, shaking Michael's shoulders lightly.

Michael groaned, hands to his head in a semblance of pain as he slouched forward against Vinny's chest, "I'm...I'm losing to it Nathaniel, I'm sorry. The kids...you'll have to go without me...Nathan...iel..." he slumped forward bonelessly against the startled man, semi-unconscious as they slid to the floor in a heap.

Vincenzo petted the back of Michael's helmet like he would the man's hair, murmuring soothing, nonsensical words into the comm while Jackson pounded on the lift door from the other side. Flashing a dangerous look at the steel door he reached over and flipped open the lift's key pad. He punched in the six-digit emergency bypass code: _10K58_, grimacing slightly as the motor whirled into life and the lift started moving up in jerky little bursts. A dark voice cackled across the stations' intercoms as they slid into darkness.

***

Vinny groaned under Michael's dead weight. For such a slight guy the man was deceptively heavy. Harsh florescent light flared into view as he kicked open the lift door loudly, the clanging grate of metal on metal sending shivers down his back. Pulling himself out of the lift he managed to hoist Michael up and over his shoulder. Thank God for only partial gravity or he wasn't sure he'd have managed.

He didn't bother looking around at the twisted pylons and burnt our rooms as he walked along the darkened corridor. Pausing at the end of the hall he thumbed open a key pad and pressed in the override code again, the door sliding back most of the way into the wall. His eyes glowed softly in the darkened room as he picked his way over to a blinking light, its soft blue glow thrumming in time to his heartbeat as he stalked closer. Taking a deep breath he pushed its ribbed surface, the light glowing brighter as the attached consol pulsed into life before them.

He sighed softly as he gently eased Michael into a nearby chair and went about sealing the room and pumping oxygen back into the chamber; the tiny movements of his fingers flitting over the key pad not lost to a slit green-gold eye only a few feet away.

***

Jackson pounded on the lift door for a long minute until Gabriel pulled him away. Shinning his light down the hall he motioned for his partner to move on away from the door and their lost compatriots.

"Let them go. We have a mission to complete and I'm not gonna sit around waiting for a psycho to play some slasher-movie on our asses." Gabriel bit out over the comms.

"But Gabe…" he whined petulantly.

Gabriel turned swiftly, slamming Jackson into a nearby bulkhead as he hissed into the comms, "I _know_ you did not just call me that name, Jackson. Or do you _want_ to go back to being 'Kamuel'? Because I'm more than happy to drag us all back into that pit if you are."

Jackson visibly paled under the ice-blue lighting, shaking his head emphatically he stammered shocked, "No. No, I'm good. Sorry, Gabriel, sorry."

"I thought so. Michael doesn't or _can't_ remember the darker days and I'll be damned if I'm going back there, so suck it up and let's move. They'll either work through this or we'll be going back alone."

Jackson watched wide-eyed as Gabriel pushed off the bulkhead and fumbled for his non-existent cigarettes before *tsking* loudly and stalking off, the glow of the halo-emitter reflecting a faint blue-green in his visor. He rubbed awkwardly at the joint between shoulder and neck as he followed his partner into the gloom.

***

A soft hiss escaped into the quiet of the room as Vincenzo prodded the helmet clasps open on his helmet. Shaking his mane of vibrant crimson hair he rocked his head back and forth, the joints of his neck popping loudly. He was pulling down his suit's internal zipper unconsciously as he looked over the readout on the screen when Michael struck, slamming his head into the counsel with one taloned ice-white hand while the other twisted his left arm up behind his back painfully. His right was smashed between his body and the chair he'd been hunched over a moment before.

Weaving his claws through Vinny's loose hair Michael gripped hard enough to elicited a strangled cry as his head jerked back.

"**_Fuck!_** Mike, what the hell man?!" He groaned coughing as his larynx was smashed into the keyboard.

A long hot tongue licked up the back of Vincenzo's exposed neck, lapping around his earlobe, "I should be asking that of you. Why did you separate us, Vincenzo?"

"Shit. I wanted to talk to you alone."

"That's not a very convincing excuse, you know." Michael purred in his ear.

"It's the truth, dammit! I just wanted to talk…alone."

"So talk."

"Maybe you could let me up a bit; it's kinda hard to talk with my face in the keyboard."

Michael eyed him for a long moment before he pulled back, letting Vinny's arm swing free as he took his seat in the chair again. "I'd recommend you talk fast, Vinny. Very fast."

"Yeah, I got that part." Vinny muttered, rubbing his bruised throat. Raking a hand through his disheveled hair he watched as Michael's eyes traced every movement he made with a feral glint. The predatory nature rolling off the man made his skin flush in a cold sweat.

"You've been loosing it, man." He started, stepping back slightly as Michael growled warningly in his throat. "For the last few nights it's been getting worse…the nightmares, the darkness leaking out, and the possessive nature towards me. It's getting worse and now I hear you and the others have some weird ass freaky history. I think I'm entitled to know if my partner's gonna rip my head off or jump me in the storage room, don't you?"

Vinny'd taken a few brazen steps towards his partner as he spoke, gathering courage with each word, but now, standing a mere foot away from the eerily calm man he swallowed hard as Michael glanced up at him and smiled.

"Answer me one thing, Vinny."

"Um, sure."

"How did you know the codes to get the lift to move and get in here?"

"I…"

Vinny took a step back as Michael rose fluidly from the chair.

"I…guess man, just a lucky guess." He stumbled over a loose cord on the floor coming up hard against the computer counsel again.

"I don't think so. You see, the emergency override code was only known to a handful of people, most of whom are dead, so I'll ask you again...how did you know the emergency override code for the station?"

Michael planted both hands on either side of Vinny, his claws scrapping little ribbons of metal and plastic in their wake.

"Answer me, Vincenzo, I won't ask again."

Vinny looked up into golden eyes took a breath and blinked, his eyes glowing like newly shed blood in the gloomy room. Michael sucked in a breath between sharp canines, his right hand rising to hang between them for a heartbeat before lightly rubbing the backs of his knuckles along the tan jaw.

"Na…Nathaniel…." He whispered reverently, the sound carried on a warm puff of breath that was sucked into the red-head's mouth as it came up to capture Michael's ravenously.

"Yes," he heard the echo in his heart and in his head, "_Yes…._"

***

Gabriel hauled Jackson up beside him on the platform. They'd finally made it to the data core. He was breathing hard, his eyesight swimmy around the edges as he stumbled from the rim. He palmed open the corridor door and fumbled for his penlight, sweeping the thin beam down the dusky hallway as they consulted the schematic again.

"Two more lefts and we should be there, right?" Jackson asked as he glared at the brat. Gabriel hated how no matter what they went through the kid never got more than winded. He shook his head and moved on, counting to himself as they passed bulkhead after bulkhead, a grim determination to outlast Jackson etched into his entire taut frame.

"Hey, Gabriel, I think this is it. A-3, right?" Jackson tugged emphatically at his belt, jerking him back against his side.

"We want A-2, idiot." He snapped, glancing at the pad again, "And stop pulling on me, I swear." He grumbled, pushing Jackson's hands off as he turned down the next corridor.

"Here." He flashed the light between the bulkhead's number and the note pad in confirmation. "Get me the ident badge we took from Nix."

"Yeah, sure." Jackson fumbled through his pouch for a second before handing over the starkly white badge.

Gabriel ran it through the key pad a few times before it finally clicked open. "About time," he huffed out angrily. Walking through the open portal he never noticed the shadow behind them, only the evil cackle as the door slammed shut and locked, air hissing out of two small puncture holes on Jackson's tank. He slammed his hand over the leaks as he fumbled for the metallic tape they all carried for emergencies, finally shouting at Jackson to rip off a section and give it to him as fast as he could.

The low _whompwhomp_ of the stations' air circulator kicking on and forcing air back into the room slowly through the vents was music to his ears. The sound slowly drowning out his internal panic as he watched Jackson gnaw through his bottom lip while he'd worked. It took longer than he wanted to get the tape off his gloves and onto the cold tank. After what seemed an eternity he let go and leaned back against the wall.

"So, I guess we're stuck in here for a bit, huh?" Jackson asked his neck at an awkward angle as he attempted to take in everything at once. They were in the computer processor annex of the control room according to their notes, which was good if they could hack the system or open the doors on the other side of the small alcove, bad if whoever locked them in here thought it might be funny to suck all the air out of the place.

Finally able to take their helmets off and slump against the door he rubbed the bridge of his nose angrily. If they got out of this alive he was going to kill those two assholes for leaving them like this. Gabriel checked his oxygen readout again. They only had about thirty minutes of air left and they'd need that to get back to the ship. As much as he hated to admit it, at this rate, everything was now up to Michael and Vinny.

He fingered the laser pistol at his hip. _Oh yeah, a nice long burst of plasma-energy for the both of them._

***

Michael leaned in closer, wrapping his arms around Nathaniel and breathing in deeply. How he missed the undercurrent of spice or the small ebb of power the man gave off he'd never know.

"Michael…" Nathaniel breathed into his hair, ruffling the long dark strands as he carded his fingers through their lengths.

Michael purred contentedly into his ear, his tongue snaking out to lap along his jaw. Nathaniel shivered, pulling the man closer with his left hand, while the right inched along behind him, his fingers seeking out the key pad, their tips lightly stroking down the right hand side of the keys, tapping out a single code: _UK0KU_.

Light flashed across them, blinding in its intensity, searing Michael's fine skin. The vines writhed in agony, the tips turning a chalky ashen black as he ripped himself from Nathaniel's arms, his back arching like he'd been whipped.

The scream surged through the room, grating on nerves and ears alike. Nathaniel pulled back, arms still draped around Michael's back as the man collapsed against him unconscious. He glanced up dull eyed as the door hissed open and glasses flashed above gleaming white teeth in the darkness.

"Qaphsiel." He intoned, head bowed slightly as the man padded lazily across the room.

Nathaniel watched disconnectedly as Qaphsiel tapped the brunette on the forehead a few times, a slow smirk inching across his unshaven features.

"Well, guess that means it works then." He sneered, pushing a plump graying stuffed rabbit up under his arm.

"Yes, sir." Nathaniel obligingly answered.

Qaphsiel prodded his glasses farther up his nose with his middle finger. Canting his hips to the side he clicked his tongue at the red-head.

"Aw, all the fight's gone out of you. Where's the feisty man who almost bit my fingers off down moon-side?" He kneeled lazily in front of the pair, ink smear finger tips coming out to push long bangs out of dusky red eyes; their dull, blank stare greeting his scrutiny.

"Oh well, guess there'd have to be some side-effects with the new drugs, wouldn't there, _Nathaniel_?" he sneered.

Pushing himself up off the filthy ground he brushed his hand against his trousers, "Well then, come along and bring your toy with you. I've still got work for you to do."

Light bounced off his glasses eerily as he meandered through the open door. Row upon row of red-eyed, red-haired clones staring back at them as they passed into the bowels of the space station.

***

TBC


	10. Paradise Lost

**Agents 0058**

Saiyuki AU

85/MA

AN: Listen to Red's _Breathe Into Me_.  
AN: The super awesome biblical-esk portions are bastardized quotes from Milton's Paradise Lost. This one is kinda bloody, sorry.

**Ch. 10: Paradise Lost**

Michael came to blinking up into flat red eyes that held neither recognition nor answers. He'd been bound to the side of the growth tank by some form of metal laced cloth he just couldn't seem to shred with his claws. And claws there were. He tried moving the vines he could feel prickling his skin, but all he got for his effort was a thin film of sweat bursting from his flesh to dribble down the small of his back and over his forehead into his eyes. It seemed whoever had captured him had also given him a mild paralytic agent as well. That would explain the slight nausea rolling around in his belly at least.

He swallowed convulsively and stared up at the empty husk floating in the tank again. On the outside it definitely looked like Vincenzo, long copper-red hair that hung suspended like a halo around a sharply pointed chin and broad brow. There were some minor inconsistencies though, the scars on his cheek were gone, his ears appeared a bit too sharply defined and at this range he could see the dark bloom of vines inching up the sallow skin of the man's neck.

He breathed a sigh of relief…it wasn't him.

"Awake, o'Sinner?"

Peering through the liquid filled tank with narrowed eyes he watched as a dark figure in a faded, dirty lab coat paced closer. He couldn't tramp down the warning growl from escaping his lips as the man rounded the tank towards him or the choked cry of shock as Vincenzo padded quietly behind him.

"Vincenzo?!" he uttered shocked.

A sharp bark of laughter followed swiftly on the heels of his question, "How sad, you look for the piercing rays and yet you'll find no dawn reflected in their depths…"

The man stopped short, turning to drape himself across Vincenzo's unflinching shoulders, a stuffed rabbit plopped jauntily on his shoulder, "So thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs, my hate dimmed them you see, they are now suffusion veil'd; your siren's call forgotten."

Michael glared at the man, "You speak in riddles and play with falsehoods while wearing ill-gotten masks to hide your identity." He paused, squinting at the man's unkempt appearance, stubbled chin and mussed spikes of glossy black hair, "I know you from the past. Who are you?"

Glasses flashed as the other stood lazily, his spine snapping at the last second to stand at attention, a mock salute and vicious sneer hard etched onto his lips, "2nd Lieutenant Qaphsiel Roads, Md., at your service, Lt. Colonel, sir!" he snapped, sneer still twitching his lips as he leaned down and grinned broadly, "Although I've taken to calling myself '_Raphael'_ of late. You remember that name, don't you Lt. Colonel? I would hope so…you killed him after all."

Michael's vision spun sharply, too many images…the fire and explosions, children crying-dirty faces filled with large gold and amethyst eyes that held tears and silent accusations, blood covering his hands and shirt, screams and groaning metal as the station collapsed around them echoing deafeningly in his ears. He wanted to force his fingers into them, to claw at his head until there was no place left for the sounds to worm their way into. It was a long moment before he realized the screams filling his ears were coming from his own mouth.

Qaphsiel laughed darkly as Michael's nails bit into the glass tank, the ends shredding under the onslaught as he gnashed his teeth together and slammed his head into the hard surface of the tank, staring grimly up into dead ruby eyes as his own blood dripped wetly into his glowing eyes; the gold outweighing the green.

"Who? Why?" He tried to fight the bloodlust welling up inside him as the edges of his vision faded out to black. His skin burned as vines shivered and twisted in upon themselves.

"It must be nice, forgetting your own sins like that. Because of you everyone died, you know? Well, not that I gave a damn about any of those ignorant plebeians, but sending _him_ in your stead…his blood is on your hands, Michael, and I was never known for my ability to forgive and forget. Madness and Genius are the opposite sides of a very thin line after all, and he was the last tether I had to this shitty little rock of a world!" he cursed loudly. Michael's eyes went wide as he saw the last bit of sanity flee to some hidden depths deep within the man's shattered soul as he started to preach at him.

"You are man's first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought _Death_ into the world, and all our woe, loosing Eden…into the claws of your own man-made devil." Qaphsiel raised his hands, claws snicking out of skin, vines billowing out in an arching pattern, unfurling across his hands and throat. Michael groaned as those so similar claws raked through his hair, grasping painfully until they were face to face and he could see the crazy shadowing the edges of the man's eyes. He stepped back suddenly, fist cocking back, claws bent to rend flesh like he was a wild animal.

Qaphsiel struck him hard across the jaw enough to rock him back against the tank, the action causing the vines to burst free of whatever drugged state they'd been trapped in. They put up a weak barrier though against the onslaught of Qaphsiel's attacks. Fire ripped across his shoulder as they found purchase and rent his suit and the tender flesh beneath it. Another blow struck him across the back of his head, a harsh cuff that tore at his scalp, dark hair hanging grimly from shimmering claws wet with his own blood.

There was movement off to his right, a slight shuffling gait and the spicy smell of cardamom pulling his attention from the one-way battle he was enduring. A glint of metal proceeded the tearing of his bindings, the soft glow of hell's fire and twist of a full red lip, the soft choked gasp of his name wafting over his ear as a tender, stilted kiss pressed itself against his palm before collapsing in a heap on the floor was Michael's only warning that the outcome wasn't predetermined afterall.

He dropped bonelessly as Qaphsiel screamed in his fury, the wild blow crashing against the side of the tank, the glass shattering under the force, the amino-acid peptide bath gushing around them…the soulless doll falling forward unheedingly. Michael kicked at the flailing form vainly, hands grabbing Vicenzo's shoulders and pulling the man farther into the darkness of the lab.

***

Michael hunched over the feverish body of his partner, unspoken prayers from a lifetime ago ghosting over his bloody lips. Groaning, the form shivered violently in his arms, red eyes cracking open faintly to peer up at him.

"Mich..ael…" shaky fingers trailed over his cheek, vines quivering as they brushed over them, "Stage three…I'm sorry, the kids…I couldn't…"

Michael choked on a sob, clutching the man closer against his bloody chest, "_Nathaniel!_" he cried desperately stroking the once vibrant hair back from pain filled pinched eyes.

Nathaniel panted heavily as Michael hovered over him, periodically he'd convulse violently, his hands clenched at his side as dark streaks slid over his hair, tainting it a murky black until it was so dark as to be almost completely shadowed with only fragments of the shimmering red he'd come to love flashing in the wan light. He reached out a tentative hand, carefully avoiding using his claws to pick at the stands in wonder.

"If it was shorter you'd look like him again," he breathed reverently, pulling the stilling form into his arms and rocking back on his heels.

Michael glanced down the row, there were hundreds of tubes in the facility his hazy memory supplied him. Most were empty, though several shattered ones were scattered around as well, the dried, crusty remains of the peptide bath clouding their long unused surfaces. One or two held floating corpses, some failed experiments from his time, some with fresh incision and track marks. He found himself filled with a deep, unbridled hate towards all of them; especially their maker Qaphsiel.

He groaned, pulling them to their feet and draping Nathaniel's arm over his scored shoulder, eliciting a hiss of pain at the contact but holding on more firmly none-the-less and pushed off the wall, staggering down the dark row towards the back of the lab. There was an exit somewhere up ahead he knew; he just wasn't sure where.

***

"It's okay, Michael, I can walk, just…ow. God that hurts." Nathaniel breathed raggedly.

"You have at least one broken rib; please don't fight me on this, Nathaniel."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Still, how'd I get a broken rib again?" he asked confused, blinking down into Michael's eyes.

"…."

"Michael?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" Michael asked softly, turning them down another aisle to the right.

Nathaniel scrunched up his brown in concentration, "There was an explosion…no, you were trying to get your helmet off…God, I can't seem to get my head right. What happened?"

"Both of those are correct. You remember Qaphsiel?"

Nathaniel blew out a stream of colorful curses, "Yeah, he was always a bit off kilter but he really went nuts after Raphael died."

"Yes, well, suffice it to say he's back and very, _very_ pissed about that." Michael leaned him back carefully against an empty tank for a moment. Leaning back he gingerly fingered the rent material of his suit and back, hissing at the hot flash of pain. Looking around he sighed, gathering Nathaniel back against him to keep walking. "We need to get out of here. Find the others and regroup. I can't beat him like this."

"Others?"

Michael glanced at him sharply, "Do you remember Gabriel? Kamuel?"

"That snot nosed little brat and his sidekick? Of course, but I put them in stasis chambers on the ship…didn't I?"

"You did…ninety-six years ago."

"Ninety…_what?!_" he pulled back shocked, staggering against a broken tank, his feet falling out from under him as he came down hard.

Michael kneeled down beside him gingerly, the action pulling on his various wounds, "It's been almost a hundred years since the lab was attacked, Nathaniel. You were…we thought you were dead. I never would have left you here if I'd known, you have to believe me!" he stuttered, tears prickling at his eyes.

"The attack?"

"It was just the first wave of such against the colonies. A nuclear holocaust almost destroyed the moon-base, but we…we took the brunt of it. They were so terrified of our work; the clones that Qaphsiel and I created were almost completely destroyed. I thought they were. I thought everything was lost. We escaped, barely, and for a long time I wasn't sane. Nightmares of you, this place, futures that would never be, they terrorized me until I was locked away with the kids in stasis."

He took a shaky breath, fingers twitching on his knees. "We were awoken a few times for tests, Gabriel was let out the longest, apparently he wasn't as dangerous as Kamuel and I were."

Nathaniel snorted at that, scrambling to his feet as footfalls echoed in the chamber, Michael right behind him.

"A while later he somehow convinced the government to let me out to test some new drugs on. They halted the disease for a while, but I quickly adapted. We went through several trials until they came up with the idea of a living drug." Nathaniel stepped in closer, pulling Michael's semi-useless left arm over his own shoulder and taking the brunt of his weight as they quickened their pace.

"A living drug? Like when we use to do the transfusions?"

"Exactly. They spliced some of my blood with Gabriel's and put it into one of their 'Enforcers' to control me."

"Enforcer…" Nathaniel rolled the word around his tongue for a moment, "Lialah?"

Michael glanced up sharply, his vision swimming as he tried to focus on Nathaniel's face. "Yes. Do you remember something?"

"Jackson, the kid mentioned her once, right? _Hell_, it's all jumbled together, Mike."

He laughed bitterly, "You know I hate that name."

Nathaniel grinned sheepishly down at him, "Yeah, sorry. So she was your leash, huh?"

"Things..._happened_ and I was locked back up."

"I seem to remember that part."

"Gabriel managed to convince them to let Kamuel out, but he had such a hard time adjusting, he was like a wild animal for a long time. Eventually they had to break him completely. Gabriel okayed some of his long term memory being erased and he came back to us as 'Jackson;' he seemed happier that way."

"The guy always was a spoiled princess." He ground out, pulling them in tight between two tanks as the crunch of glass underfoot came closer from somewhere off to their left.

"You know the rest?" Michael whispered, voice tight, his skin glistening with sweat and paler than normal.

"Shh…come on, the door should be around here. We can talk later."

His hand floundered against the wall, muscles straining as he fumbled for the key pad he knew was just…_there_. Pulling Michael through the door he came face to face with the end of a phaser pistol and behind it, two glaring violet eyes.

"You're fucking _late_." Gabriel bit out; Jackson watching from behind him wide eyed. He took one look at the two of them and dropped the pistol, though he didn't holster it.

"Who'd you piss off _this_ time, morons?"

***

TBC


	11. The God's Walk Among Us

**Agents 0058**

58/10K/MA

AN: Listen to M83-_We Own The Sky_

**Ch. 11: The God's Walk Amongst Us**

Gabriel was his usual pissy self, which made Nathaniel feel better at least. Something's never change, although it was disconcerting seeing the little boy within the man. What really gabbed him by the throat though was Kamuel, the kid hadn't changed at all, well, maybe he was a bit taller, and more adult like, but the big goofy grin and shinning eyes were the same as they'd ever been.

Jackson cocked his head to the side and gave him a funny look, "What'd you do to your hair, pervi-cockroach?"

Nathaniel about decked him, "Who the hell you calling roach, ya brat!" he hollered while Michael made little placating sounds beside him. All at once everything snapped into alignment. He knew this, these people, this world. He knew he was still Nathaniel, but he remembered Vincenzo as well.

Fist clutching Kamuel's suit he hauled the kid up against him, only mildly pissed but the kid's eyes were gleaming with spit-fire as he vibrated unbridled energy throughout the small room.

"Hey, you're not Vinny!" the bright eyed kid gasped in shock as he got closer.

Gabriel snapped the gun back up, clicking his tongue in frustration when Jackson's head kept getting in the way. "Who?" he growled threateningly.

Michael's hand snapped out, clawed fingers closing over Gabriel's wrist with an inhuman strength. He growled low in his throat, noticing the slight tint of ashen vines unfurling down his arms and over his hands…around his throat and over his cheek. "Enough!" he snapped, "You may be in charge, but I am now firmly in command of my memories Gabriel….and my powers. Back off or I _will_ hurt you." He snarled, lips curling to reveal extended canines.

Gabriel leveled a searing gaze at him and snorted, "Do and there will be two dead assholes instead of one when we leave."

Michael felt a warning snarl rumbling about in the back of his throat, he really would hurt the man if he didn't back down, even if he was a friend.

Nathaniel dropped the kid and stepped in quickly behind him, wrapping his arms around his heaving chest and pressing his lips against the thundering pulse point in his neck. "Shhh…its fine. I can talk for myself, Michael, just chill."

Michael relaxed fractionally into the man's embrace, cradling the injured left arm in his hands, finger pads rubbing small circles into the bruised flesh through the suit. He stirred only to shift his head and give the burgundy eyed man the space to plant his chin firmly in the crook of his neck, though his eyes never strayed from Gabriel's.

"I'm a little torn up that you don't remember me, Gabe, especially considering how I use to wipe that cute little ass of yours when Raphael was 'working late'." Nathaniel leered smugly, chuckling at the embarrassed red flush that bloomed hotly up Gabriel's neck.

"You're not Vincenzo and you know father's name. Who'd you drag back with you, Michael?"

"Nathaniel." The name came out as more of a caressing purr than an answer. The hot stab of long forgotten lust at the sound drove straight through him, making Nathaniel shift even closer to the brunette, fingers pressing the lean figure in his arms back against him. The large tan fingers splayed across Michael's belly as he lightly rocked them against each other.

"Dear fucking _God_." Gabriel cursed at the overtly sexual display. He didn't need this today. "Fine. What's with the changes then?"

Nathaniel smirked at Michael's throaty laugh and tipped his head to the side as Nathaniel barred his teeth and bit down hard over the jumping pulse, a strangled gasp coming from the room as crimson life leaked out of his mouth and Michael drew angry red welts across Nathaniel's cheek, two perfectly parallel lines under his exotic eyes.

"Eww!" Jackson crowed, taking a step closer towards his partner.

"So you switched leashes, that it? Lialah never had to drink your blood though, she wasn't that crude. Or maybe you just like the pain and debasement? Fucking perverts, the lot of you." He spat disgustedly.

Nathaniel lapped at the wound once more with a shinning red tongue and smirked, "Actually it was an accident that brought the change, you prick."

Michael flexed his neck experimentally and shrugged, "I split my lip open during the battle…"

"And kissed him, of course, morons. You know what this means for you. No matter what, you can't go back to the way things were before."

Nathaniel rocked them back on the balls of his feet, an open leer on his face, "This _is_ how we were before; you were just too young to realize it. That and with your father's relationship with Qaphsiel…"

The gun was pressed right between his eyes in a second, the cold cut of the barrel and the twitch of Gabriel's left eye telling him now would be a very, _very_ good time to shut the hell up.

Michael stepped forward then, putting more weight than he ought to on strained muscles, staggering slightly as he tried to get between them all. Nathaniel dropped the provocation like a rock and bent down, gathering the green-eyed man in close against his chest, worry knitting his brows together, "Michael, you okay? I told you not to push yourself." He crooned Michael's name in his ear as he dropped into a half crouch with the dazed man between his legs.

Michael smiled weakly and leaned back into the loose embrace, coughing a little wetly as he did, slouching further down when Nathaniel insisted on using his left arm even though he could barely move it.

"Explanation…now!" Gabriel bit out, gun still raised.

Michael glanced up and gave the upset blonde a dazzling smile, "I brought Nathaniel home, Gabriel. I brought him _home_."

The smile took on a possessive edge to it as he pulled Nathaniel's arms around him tighter, "I won't let you or anyone take him away again. He's mine." He growled animal-like up at the violet eyed man.

Silence dragged out for several long moments before Gabriel dropped his gun into its holster and turned on his heel, crowding Jackson until the kid stumbled backwards into the bulkhead. "Stop squirming, idiot and give me your knife."

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, sure, sure. Here you go!" he blinked rapidly before fishing the small dagger out of his boot and handing it over to the grumpy man.

Walking over briskly he reached down and, glaring at the two, gathered Nathaniel's hair into a tight fist. A quick flick of his wrist had the long hair falling like autumn leaves over the two startled men. Shaking his hand to dislodge the last clinging hair he wiped Jackson's knife on the front of his suit and handed it back to its owner.

"There, now at least I know who I'm shooting at." He turned his warning gaze to Michael and thumbed back over his shoulder, "He's still 'Jackson' and if either of you idiots calls me 'Gabe' I really will shoot one of you. Now who the hell am I fighting and how do we get the _fuck _out of here?" he probed, getting back to business.

Michael turned stony in a heartbeat as foot falls echoed down the halls, "Qaphsiel." He breathed with a glance to Gabriel. "Do you remember him?"

Gabriel clenched his teeth so hard he thought they'd crack. "Fucking asshole. You think he'd have gotten the picture back then." He turned on his heel and stomped over to the computer terminals, randomly kicking the floor units and slamming the cases of the racked ones.

Glaring at the group he flung a hand up in disgust, "One of you idiots get me an open channel, I'm gonna finish this right now."

***

TBC


	12. Breaking Down Heaven's Door

Agents 0058

Saiyuki AU

58/10K/39, MA

Ch. 12: **Breaking Down Heaven's Door**

**"Breathing Slowly"**

Who am I to save you,  
To try and tame you,  
And now that you are free of me,  
But next time when you break down,  
Is it me you'll take down,  
With you on your knees?

So who was I to hurt you,  
To desert you,  
When you needed me there,  
So now that you've learned to hate me,  
You're finally set free,  
I fall to my knees,

And I'm breathing slowly,  
Like you said to do when you had lost control,  
My head spins from God's wind,  
That carries you away from me,  
Looks like you got away from me,  
This time,  
For good...

And since those days have passed me by,  
I'm in and out of life,  
The way you used to be,  
You know I always was the strong one,  
But now I've come undone,  
Sweet Release...(come to me)

And I'm breathing slowly,  
Like you said to do when you had lost control,  
My head spins from God's wind,  
That carries you away from me,  
Looks like you got away from me, This time,  
You got away from me oh yea,  
You got away for good...

***

The steady echoing thump thump of boots thudding down the hall was overlaid with a shrill screech…long claws digging into groaning metal and pulling across its surface like nails on a chalk board. Jackson huddled closer to a red-eared Gabriel in the suddenly quiet computer room while Michael, still resting within the relative safety of Nathaniel's arms, pinched the bridge of his nose and pocketed his glasses. A low, warning growl rumbled softly at the base of Nathaniel's throat, curling there until Michael gently patted his hand and pulled himself to his feet.

Glancing at Gabriel he gingerly picked his was over to the fuming blonde and ran his fingers reverently over the keyboards. "We should be able to tap into the main operations bank from here…give me a moment…." Pulling up a shell script he punched in the appropriate codes and frowned when a smiling bunny icon hopped across the screen.

Nathaniel groaned as he stood and dusted off his knees lightly, "You're gonna have to bypass the _Usagi_ codes, Mike."

Gabriel gave him a calculating look, "And how would you know that?" he glared icily.

Nathaniel shrugged, leaning against Michael's back heavily as he punched in the codes on the keyboard, "Let's see…I think it was M...A...10...R…I...P…" He frowned for a moment as a string of bypass codes scrolled across the screen, tan finger trailing along the edge of the screen until the partition menu flashed up, "Okay, now try it." He murmured huskily in Michael's ear, his fingers trailing through dark coffee hair as he brushed the tendrils out of green-gold eyes and rested his chin on his partner's shoulder.

Michael's finger flew across the keys, punching in codes, redirecting around burnt out or locked subroutines, finally cracking into the operations database and pulling up the communications relay. He scrolled through the various menus rapidly, holding up a clawed, ivy covered hand to stall Gabriel from moving forward when his eyes lighted on a different screen.

"Wait, I think I found something….Yes, here, the stations schematics."

"But we already have that," Jackson stated perplexed.

"I'm looking for those sections that still have power and oxygen, or did you think you could hold your breath long enough to get back to the shuttle, Jackson?" Michael quipped, a slight growl in his voice as the corridor door was suddenly struck by something metal.

He spared a quick glance at the metal before skimming over the flashing images, stopping periodically to scan one in more detail before moving on. A few more jarring bangs assaulted the door before things feel silent.

"Now would be a good time…"

"There!" He crowed, a bright smile slashing across his features as he jabbed at the screen. "It looks like we can take one of the service shafts back down to the shuttle. There's no heat, but I should be able to take the cold for a few minutes as long as the oxygen stays pumping through the pipes along the walls."

Gabriel leaned over and studied the glowing screen, a slight frown on his lips as he studied it. "Tch. We've got to get over a corridor to access it and you've got rents in your suit. Even with your enhanced body chemistry it's going to be tight."

"Well, if our host is wearing a suit we can solve the problem by kicking his ass and leaving him up here, you know." Nathaniel stated flatly.

"Qaphsiel…Okay, we've got your map now get me the intercoms and video feeds and a way out of this rat trap and I we can go home. I need a fucking cigarette." Gabriel grumbled, already turning to glower at the dead video feeds along the far wall.

"Nathaniel, I'll need you to hook up the the vid feeds while I bypass security and reroute the intercoms to one of the microphones."

"Got it, love." Nathaniel flicked his tongue over the shell of Michael's ear before pushing off and hastening to find the right cables and cords in the various boxes scattered about.

"Jackson, go over to the other door and see if you can't find a way to get that door open. Gabriel…I hope you know what you're doing. He's been stage three for longer than we thought humanly possible. He can still speak and his intelligence doesn't seem to have diminished, but his power is incredibly destructive. I don't think…I don't think he really cares what happens to him as long as we all die. He truly believes your father's death was my fault." Green-gold eyes looked over at the sullen blonde, a deep sadness welling up inside him as he spoke quietly.

Violet eyes narrowed to mere slits, his voice bitter as he spoke, "Raphael died saving others. I blame Earth and the morons who took pot shots at us for his death, not you."

Running a hand through his hair and glanced at Jackson. "We've all got our demons to deal with, it's time he realized his has been dead and buried for almost a century."

He shrugged and tugged on his suits collar, "I won't bother stating the obvious about what shitty taste dad had in taking the asshole as a lover, but…well, even if he's doing this as some form of fucked up vengeance, killing those kids to get our attention is too much. Raphael never would have allowed that." His eyes flashed amethyst in the florescent lighting as he ground his teeth together in mounting anger.

"We're all set-up on my end!" Nathaniel broke the tension by calling out.

"I think I can pry open the door over here too, but we're gonna hafta book it once I get it started." Jackson's still young voice shouted as he bounded over to them.

A quick nod of Gabriel's head had Michael handing over the microphone, grim determination evident in the hard set of his jaw as he hit enter. The bunny icon back as the program started running. Around them video feeds hummed into life while the intercoms crackled and sputtered.

"Hey asshole!" Gabriel started while Nathaniel and Jackson tried not to laugh, Michael just groaned.

The pounding on the door started up again, this time fierce enough to show small dents on their side, the metal groaning under the assault. Michael slipped over to the side, his own claws unsheathed and ready should he breach their defenses, Nathaniel taking up his post on the other side, a metal pipe in his hands. It took a moment to remember not to focus on how those large hands clenched and unclenched around the thin rod, a shiver running down his spine when Nathaniel caught his eye and gave him a heated look as he slid is fingers along the hard length.

"Not now you morons!" Gabriel snapped angrily before turning his attention back to the task at hand.

"Qaphsiel! I know you can hear me, you fucked up piece of shit!" he hollered, directing his scorching glare at the doorway. "Listen up, dad is dead. D.E.A.D. Dead. He has been for fucking decades and he's not coming back. I don't care about your fucking clones or screwing with lost technology. If you kill one more kid I swear to whatever God you want to call on that I will space your ass right along with his. You want to go all mad-scientist on some thing, Nuc the fucking Earth, they're the ones who shot us up anyway!" He spat viciously. Little drops of spittle flying across the room as he bit out his thoughts on the subject.

Screeching metal was his answer as inky claws forced their way between the door and the wall. There was a moment when nothing happened, where all they did was breathe and watch before the entrance was flung open effortlessly and they were flung about like pixie sticks. Michael tried to use the vines to capture the sudden blur that raced across the room but all he managed to do was tangle up Nathaniel instead.

"For fuck's sake, Mike!" He yelled, struggling against the persistently clingy vines.

"Gabriel!" Jackson screamed, the cry echoing oddly in the room as he raced forward, stunning everyone as he grappled with the obsidian haired man. Fingers hooked around claws, teeth bared and lips curled back they locked themselves together, their bodies leaning at a dangerous angle as they tried to force the other backwards away from their prey.

"Jackson!" They cried out in unison, three pairs of hands reaching for the boy who suddenly lurched forward, teeth bared and clasped the stunned man's throat in a savage display.

Michael and Nathaniel recovered first, some deep-seated instinct in their manipulated DNA answering the feral growl that escaped around the boy's newly sharpened canines.

"No." Gabriel breathed raggedly as the golden eyes glowed softly in the room, his bronze mane of wild hair shifting back and forth as he shook the blood splattered man's throat still locked tightly in his teeth until an audible snap sounded and Qaphsiel slid to the floor in a bloody, broken heap, the light in his eyes slowly fading, his lips curled back to smile and he gurgled wetly, more bright crimson blood dribbling out of his mouth, pooling around his ravaged throat. "Ha! Your boy's gonna die by my hand one way or another, Raphael…we're a fucked up little family...all dead. Monsters in the closet…."

"No! Jackson!! KAMUEL!!! Stop it you idiot! I didn't go through all the trouble of wiping those memories just to have you do them all over again!" Gabriel lunged forward, intent on pulling his lover back to his side and away from the now glassy eyed murderer curled around his feet.

Michael watched as Jackson turned slowly towards Gabriel, his hands and mouth covered in sticky blood and an unholy glint in his feral eyes.

"Gabe no!" Nathaniel screamed, Michael's vines unfurling towards him rapidly.

Too bad they weren't quick enough.

TBC


	13. Down the Rabbit Hole

Agents 0058  
Saiyuki AU  
10K/58/39/M

**Ch. 13: Down the Rabbit Hole**

Dark green vines snapped out, wrapping themselves vice-like around Jackson's forearms, vainly struggling to hold the boy back as he inched closer to Gabriel, his lips drawn back in a snarl as a bright red tongue lapped over bloody canines. Nathaniel stepped forward only to have an angry violet glare directed at him, a shouted 'stay back' riveting him to where he stood, his eyes wide and shocked.

Pushing himself up on his elbows Gabriel glowered at the younger man, frustration and concern mingling in dark amethyst eyes that sparkled in the flashing lights. The power was starting to fade, great.

"Shit." He cursed under his breath, levering himself up until he could stand and staggered to his partner's side.

"Gabriel, I don't think he's…" Michael started warningly.

Gabriel cut him off angrily, "Shut it! I'll deal with this monkey-brained idiot myself. Let him go, Michael."

"What?! No, Gabriel he'll rip you apart!! He's completely surpassed the mutation inhibitors we were given. At this rate, even I can't stop him! He'll _kill_ you damn it!" Michael shouted, pulling on the vines harder as he struggled to get a better grip on the crazed teen.

"He won't kill me, now let him go and get the hell out of here! I need you to get the shuttle ready before the station's power dies." Gabriel snapped, his golden hair shimmering as he shook his head and stepped closer to the snarling form.

"Damn it you suicidal bastard, Mike's right, if you get any closer he'll shred you! He can't tell who we are anymore!"

"He knows me." Gabriel breathed softly, a fervent wish that he repeated like a prayer or mantra over and over as he stepped close enough for Jackson's hot, copper tinted breath to puff out raggedly against his throat and chest as he looked down at his lover.

"Jackson…" he whispered, fingers shaking slightly. Trailing his knuckles over the blood smeared jaw he couldn't help himself but flinch when razor-like teeth snapped at them, their sharp points sinking into the cool flesh of his hand.

"_**Gabriel!**_" Michael and Nathaniel shouted in unison as their friend grit his teeth and hissed, breathing through the flash of pain that ripped though him.

"Let him go, Michael and get out of here!"

"We're not leaving…"

"GO, DAMN IT!!!" he screamed, spittle flying as he wrapped his free arm around Jackson's waist and jerked him free of Michael's vines.

Slamming the boy against his chest he kept the injured hand between them, tucking Jackson's head up under his chin and cursed.

"Shit! God damn it Jackson, let go of my fucking hand and knock it off! I'm not a freakin' chew toy!" he groaned as the teeth slid a bit farther into the flesh, making him shudder as they scrapped painfully along the tiny bones. "Enough, Jackson…enough…" he murmured, his free hand smoothing down the back of Jackson's suit, fingers pushing against the spine as he tried to get the other to calm down.

Glancing over the mop of copper-gold hair he glared at the two across the room. "Get out of here. I can't keep him calm while he still smells you. Move it." He grumbled, his attention flitting back and forth between the still growling boy and his partners.

"Gabe…"

"Let's go, Nathaniel."

"Mike?"

Michael's vines curled around his forearms and throat slowly, retracting until they lay like slightly raised tattoos across his pale skin. Gripping Nathaniel's hand loosely he tugged the man back toward the corridor.

"Come on…we'll have to hurry if we're going to make it back to the shuttle. I don't know how long we will be able to handle the sections without air and my suit is still shredded. We'll have to find a replacement back in the lab. Come on." Michael goaded softly, casting one last look over his shoulder at the two lovers, Gabriel held Jackson close, their bodies pressed together as he murmured the younger man's name over and over, fingers trailing through messy hair and blood pooling around their feet, a combination of Gabriel's and Qaphsiel's.

Pulling Nathaniel along behind him they headed off back towards the lab, a fervent prayer in their hearts that it wouldn't be the last time they saw the two.

***

Gabriel watched the two leave with a mixture of relief and dread coursing through his blood. It didn't help that he was light-headed from the pain and pissed off at his current predicament. He hated public displays of affection and even now, with Jackson all crazy demonic the foremost thought in his head was how he wished the idiot had done this when they were alone instead of surrounded by people.

"You done now?" he asked, mild reproach coloring his words.

Jackson growled low in his throat in response, his tongue flicking out to lap at the torn flesh of his palm.

"I am not having this conversation with a wild animal. Knock it off and let go of my damn hand."

Jackson snarled lightly, but let go of the abused appendage. Wrapping his arms around Gabriel's waist he sunk his claws into the suit's thick material and nuzzled against his chest.

"You better now? Maybe I should call you a cat instead of monkey and if you claw up my suit I swear I'll leave your ass here." He grumbled.

"Gabe…?" Jackson's voice cracked as he tried to come back to himself.

"Yeah, I'm here. You done playing crazy space alien now?"

Jackson growled at the snide remark and nipped the blonde's collarbone in retaliation.

"Fucking hell! Do that again and I'm pulling your teeth!" he snarled back at the dark copper eyes that glowered at his from beneath a messy fringe.

"Then don't…don't leave me again…Gabe…" Jackson choked back a sob, rubbing his face back and forth against Gabriel's chest, the anger melting away to be replaced by trepidation.

"Idiot," Gabriel sighed softly as he combed the fingers of his good hand through Jackson's hair. "You're too much trouble to leave on your own and I'm not coming back here to get you…."

He paused and cupped the younger man's face in his hands, tilting his chin to gaze into his eyes, "So you'll just have to stay by my side, understand?" he asked softly and brushed their lips together in the most agonizingly tender display he'd ever shown.

Jackson groaned and nipped at Gabriel's bottom lip, trying to pull him even closer to deepen the too fleeting kiss.

"Not now, idiot. I don't trust those two to not leave us stranded while they go off and have kinky vine space sex or something equally perverted." He shook his head ruefully, but couldn't stop the chuckle bubbling up within him at the thought; he really was a masochist for staying with these morons.

"Gabriel…sorry." Jackson voice was pitched so low he thought he'd misheard the mumbled reply at first, but the tightening of Jackson's fingers on his back, the slight trembles that shook the boy's body…he sighed and gripping the golden chin tightly he pressed an ardent kiss against the still bloody lips. Jackson's shocked surprise parted them enough for Gabriel to slip his tongue past their defenses and lick along the roof of his mouth, lapping at his tongue until Jackson's legs went weak at the knees and they were both left panting, their eyes glassy and half lidded.

"Come on," he murmured against them, his own legs a bit shaky as he pulled them towards the door and grabbed their helmets.

"I really do hate space," he grumbled softly, more for something to say than angry at being trapped in his lover's unbreakable grasp as they shuffled through the door and headed back for the ship.

***

Confirming his suspicion that he'd seriously pissed off some God or other in a previous life, Gabriel bit down on his tongue to keep from throwing his helmet at his 'aunt' as they departed the mostly intact remains of their shuttle. Michael seemed to have skipped the reentry lessons all pilots were required to take.

"Fucking hell," He groaned as Lilith sauntered up to the platform, her cream colored silk blouse barely concealing his voluminous assets.

"Well, nice to see you too, darling. Here I came all the way to make sure you were okay and what do I get for my troubles? A snarling teenager, one horrible dye-job, a tattoo etch-a-sketch, and a pissy princess. What, forgot to take your valium before touchdown?" She snorted delicately, hands on her fists as she looked them over, "You boys are a mess."

"No shit. Unless you're here to tell us we're all getting two weeks paid vacation for stopping the crazed loony up there, get the hell out of our way." Nathaniel snarled at her, right arm wrapped protectively around Michael's shoulders.

"Well I was here to fix you all up but if that's the gratitude I'm going to receive you can do it yourselves!" She tossed a box of smiley faced band aids at his head and then flicked him off.

Turning on her heel she stomped back down the gangplank, hollering over her shoulder as she did, "Get your report to the Council Heads by 08:00 tomorrow and then take a week off." Glaring over her shoulder at Nathaniel as he smiled sweetly, "It would have been two, but somebody had to go and piss me off. Kisses!"

A round of groans followed her back towards the ambulance. Her hair swishing across her bare shoulders, blood-red fingernails pressed to his lips as she cackled loudly.

***

_1 week later:_

"You really think they'll give us an extra week off?" Jackson asked around a forkful of pancakes.

"Close your damn mouth when you eat!" Gabriel snapped.

"We were given a week's worth of medical leave, on top of a week off for 'good behavior,' so to speak." Michael pleasantly responded. Cutting off a small portion of the fluffy pastry and dunking it in the cold syrup before dragging it to his lips.

Nathaniel snorted, "Yeah, like that ever stopped them from making us work before."

"I really do think they'll give it to us this time."

Three pairs of eyes locked on Michael, the soft, pleasant smile firmly in place doing nothing to counteract the effect of inky vines crawling across his milky skin or the glimmer of gold-tinged forested eyes under rough cut chocolate bangs.

Nathaniel broke the silence with a soft chuckle, the volume rising as Jackson and finally even Gabriel joined in.

"Fucking hell, Mike, you threatened the old bastards, didn't you?!" Wiping tears away from the corners of his eyes Nathaniel gasped for air and held his side.

Michael took another dainty bite of pancake, "I haven't the slightest clue to what you're referring, Nathaniel. I simply gave them my report as to what happened with…_visual_ _displays_ when I thought they needed clarification on certain points." He shrugged nonchalantly, "Besides, it'll be hard for them to make us go back to work when three of us still have the mutations so clearly visible."

Nathaniel sobered quickly at that, flexing his longer than normal nails, his arm draped over Michael's shoulder and their chairs placed close together around the table. Jackson blinked big slit eyes at them from across the table, a long tongue lapping at the last of the sticky syrup on his plate as he held it before him in clawed hands.

Gabriel grunted, "The only thing that's changed is now people know what a bunch of perverts you are before you open your mouths." He jerked a thumb at Jackson, "And that he's still a monkey." Gulping down the last of his coffee he stood languidly, thwacking his paper against his side as he left the table a sputtering Nathaniel being placated by the soothing voice of Michael and Jackson hard on his heels, half-peeled banana clenched in his pointed teeth.

He stifled a smile as Jackson called his name out…_nothing ever really changes._

Fin.


	14. After All’s Said And Done epilogue

Agents 0058  
Saiyuki AU  
10K/58/39/M

**Ch. 14: After All's Said And Done** (Epilogue)

"So what exactly have you been pouring over these last few days, hmm? We're supposed to be on vacation." Nathaniel flopped down on the bed beside Michael, ignoring the look of annoyance that flashed across his features when a long tan finger prodded the thin brunette in the side.

"I'm going through our old research from the Lab."

"Why? The military has control of it now; they'll deal with it." He waved dismissively.

"That's what I'm afraid of." Sighing Michael dropped the folders on his lap and leaned back against the headboard. Rubbing his eyes, his glasses pushed up onto his forehead as he pinched the bridge of his nose. His head ached from reading all the documents.

"Hey now, none of that." Nathaniel scooted closer, lining their sides up and gently pulled his lover against him, brown hair tickling his chin as he rested it on the top of Michael's head.

"Just put it down for the night, I'm sure we can figure out a more pleasurable way of distracting you for an evening." He bumped his hip against the other suggestively, chuckling when Michael thwacked him in the shoulder.

"Idiot. You were never part of the military personnel on the station, Nathaniel; Qaphsiel and I were. Our work in genetic engineering and clone development was funded by the military. Raphael and the other scientists and you were strictly support personnel or privately funded passengers; you didn't have to deal with their bureaucracy or the constant threat of pulled funding because you couldn't break the five year clone lifespan problem. We did. They didn't care how we achieved our goals as long as we got results and sometimes that led to _unpleasant_ situations."

"The Cain virus." Nathaniel whispered, a shudder running down his spine as he remembered the shattered glass in the lab…Michael hunched over the broken pieces with blood soaking through his shirt and slacks, the smooth gash across his abdomen from the shattered beaker spread open like a dissection incision. He shuddered again and pulled Michael closer.

"The Cain virus." Michael breathed raggedly against his lover's chest, wrapping his arms tighter around the solid warmth and took a shuddering gasp of air. "It could have been worse, looking back on it all. It solved the radiation and oxygen depletion issues the settlers were faced with."

"At the cost of normal lives for all of us!" Nathaniel bit out angrily, large hands smoothing the stubborn cowlick that parted Michael's hair in front.

"Yes. The side effects were decidedly not pleasant." Michael held up a pale hand and with a thought soft tendrils fluttered over the surface, fading in and out as the virus fought with the immunosuppressant in his blood.

"Those aren't nearly as bad as the kid though." Nathaniel mumbled softly against his temple.

"No, Kamuel's infection rate was much worse. I took a direct injection of pure blood which gave me the full range of mutations, but the rest of you…the enhanced version you all took caused such a wide range of mutations that some, like Gabriel, only had their healing abilities and lives extended, others, such as Kamuel became completely taken over by uncontrollable madness and you…" Michael glanced up, a sad look on his face as he trialed his knuckles over the hard line of Nathaniel's jaw.

"I died." He whispered softly, clinging onto Michael like a life line.

"Yes, I'm so sorry I couldn't think of a better way to save you, but my blood was the purest form of the disease, with its healing properties and a full body transfusion we were able to be together again! I…I never thought it would have made you dependant on my blood to live though. I hadn't wanted to chain you to me like that. I'm sorry, Nathaniel." he groaned.

"Enough of that." Nathaniel snapped lightly, "I'd pledged to be by your side until the end anyway, this way I just get a bit longer and have complete and total permission to ravish you madly whenever I start to feel a bit weak, that's a pretty damn good consolation prize the way I see it." He leered down at the man in his arms and stifled a groan when Michael used his inner thigh as a scratching pad.

"Smart ass." Michael mumbled, face pressed into the crook of Nathaniel's neck as a gentle blush fanned over his pale skin and a low laugh reverberating in Nathaniel's chest as he chuckled.

"Hey, at least my hair didn't fall out, that would have sucked." Michael looked up to see Nathaniel pulling on a short black-red spike of hair, a pensive look on his face.

"The black was a startling change." He mused, "I'm still not sure why your hair and eyes darkened so much. The rest of ours went gold or some variation of the color, but maybe something in your DNA stopped them from changing completely, like how Gabriel's went from dark blue to violet. They had a natural reddish tint to the brown to begin with, but after the transfusion they seemed to almost glow like burning coals."

"My geeky poet…how cute!" Nathaniel dropped the spike and grinned at him cheekily.

"You never change; memories or not you're still an incorrigible flirt." Michael accused, a long suffering sigh escaping his lips.

"The color change aside, you're blood seemed to be the key to keeping the clones alive for any length of time. At least from what I can discern from Qaphsiel's notes that is."

"Yeah? That why all those freaky looking dolls resembled me?"

"Well, sort of. The original clones we created looked like Kamuel: short, compact, and powerful. From what I can understand those 'dolls' were a mixture of Kamuel's original DNA and your mutated one. I'm assuming your features came from a more dominant genetic standpoint, like wow children take after one parent more than another."

"Ew, okay, please never call those things Jackson and my kids, that's just creepy." Nathaniel shuddered violently and clung to Michael's giggling form.

"Should I be jealous of your love children?" he joked, grinning brightly when Nathaniel chucked a pillow at him.

Nathaniel waited until his green eyed partner ducked before launching himself at the still laughing man and tackling to the bed, papers, notes, and files tossed up into the air in disarray.

"Nathaniel!"

Nathaniel lay sprawled over his lover, raining soft kisses over fluttering eyelids and smiling lips, smoothing hair back from sparkling emerald eyes and drawing fingertips lightly down smooth skin. He pressed a kiss to the corner of Michael's mouth and nibbled gently on his full lower lip, "It's over, Mike, all done, no more clones, no more crazy mad-scientists, no more dead kids. Even if we're stuck with the monkey and his holier-than-thou keeper…it's done and we're free. So let's leave the past in the past and move on with our lives."

He took a strand of red-black hair in his fingers and twirled it around a bronze finger, "It's not red, but it's still kinda cool, the red tips will still catch the ladies' eyes at the clubs…"

"Ooff!" Nathaniel rolled off his mate with an exaggerated grimace and clutched his stomach where Michael hit him, the normally polite man taking that moment to flip their positions and kiss him silly.

Pulling back Michael looked down at his lover tenderly and pressed a kiss to the inside of his palm. "Keep that up and I'll shave it all off one night when you're sleeping." He threatened a mischievous spark in his deep forested eyes.

"Heh, as long as you're next to me I wouldn't care if I was bald." Michael raised an incredulous eyebrow at that.

"Okay, maybe we should leave the bald jokes to Gabe then." Nathaniel smirked at the thought of Gabriel waking up and having his head shaved, "Hey, you think we can get the kid…"

"No! I am not starting over with an angry Gabriel in the same house, not going to happen, Nathaniel, so don't even think about it!" Michael warned, finger waggling at his trouble making partner.

Nathaniel snaked long arms around Michael's waist and dragged the man down against him, "Nah, I'd much rather screw you into the mattress than piss off that jack-ass. Come on let's see about starting everything over. First time's the charm and all that shit."

"I believe it's 'third time's the charm'…"

"That works too." Michael groaned at the obvious leer as he was rolled over on to his back and the sheets were drawn up over the two of them.

"You'll never learn will you?" he asked rhetorically.

"Nope! And you wouldn't want me any differently, would you, love?"

Michael had to smile at that, for all he'd fought with his partners' wicked tongue and teasing nature, first as Vincenzo and now as Nathaniel, he'd never really wanted it to stop and now he wouldn't have too. Tossing back his head as Nathaniel used that wicked tongue to mark him he groaned and pulled the sheet up higher. He had never been good at sharing and he sure as hell wasn't planning on starting now.

Fin.


End file.
